Papua New Guinea - Politics
PNG is known as "the land of the unexpected". Papua New Guinea is a constitutional, federal, multiparty, parliamentary democracy. Michael Somare was Papua New Guinea's first Prime Minister following independence in 1975 from Australia under a UN trusteeship and served for four mandates.
National politics is a world of shifting alliances. No single party has ever governed in its own right. Each successive government has been dependent on shaky, unreliable coalitions. Party discipline is also loose and party members are prone to act independently, changing allegiances overnight and voting as it suits them and, sometimes, their bank balances.
Papua New Guinea's politics are highly competitive with most members elected on a personal and ethnic basis within their constituencies rather than as a result of party affiliation. There are several parties, but party allegiances are not strong. Winning independent candidates are usually courted in efforts to forge the majority needed to form a government, and allegiances are fluid.
New governments are protected by law from votes of no confidence for the first 18 months of their incumbency, and no votes of no confidence may be moved in the 12 months preceding a national election. Reversals of fortune and a revolving-door succession of prime ministers have characterized Papua New Guinea's national politics. The country has a history of changes in government coalitions and leadership from within parliament during the 5-year intervals between national elections.
PNG politics never ceases to amaze anyone who tries to understand it. Political scientists and perhaps politicians themselves who began their careers with no degree in politics have continually been asked to describe PNG politics and they have given up trying to explain … because this country's politics is so unstable and unpredictable. There are few similarities in PNG politics with that of other countries.
Besides its peculiar features of many parties, party hopping, half of one party in government, the other in the opposition, mockery of the electoral process (countless election petitions), the rise of politicians in the political hierarchy, the one that has always amazed observers is home-grown or as often termed "PNG Style" but it is a stark contrast to the western democracies PNG tried to emulate.
The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea enjoys greater powers than a President of the US or Prime Minister of Australia. In Australia and the US, there are well-developed political parties, including organized factions within ruling parties, which limit a leader's power. In PNG, everything depends on the Prime Minister, making him in practice close to a dictator, especially given new laws passed to promote political stability, reducing the frequency of votes of confidence and parliamentary challenges which had kept PNG politics volatile and unpredictable in preceding years.
Political parties in PNG are also unlike their western counterparts. They tended to be coalitions of MPs already elected in their own right. Though some figures emerged as relatively dominant, they could not enforce party discipline or personal loyalty. Party affiliation meant little to election prospects and members had little reason to work together to boost party chances in the future. Limited preferential voting is changing the political landscape following the July 2007 elections.
The historical political system has produced many members of parliament designated as national leaders, but with little incentive to have a national outlook. This goes a long way to explain the factional political squabbling that often consumes Port Moresby while government services and national infrastructure steadily deteriorate. The literate public has deservedly low expectations of government, and the government has been notoriously impervious to pressure from the electorate.
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