Papua New Guinea (PNG) goes to the polls once in every five years and this year, 2012 will be the seventh time for PNG to go to the polls to decide who emerges as the new head of state. Since the inception of Independence from Australia in 1975 and self governance a few years later, PNG has been through 9 different elections and experienced leardership under seven Prime Ministers.
As we buckle up for the coming elections, it might be interesting to note a few interesting points
- there are 76 existing political parties in PNG, 46 officially registered with the Electral Commission, 42 with candidates actually contesting the elections and 4 that we have no idea what they are planning
- there are 3429 candidates contesting the 2012 elections in PNG (see list below)
- CANDIDATE LIST.2012 Election
- of the 3429 candidates, 2185 are Independent candidates while the remaining 1274 candidates are split amongst the 42 political parties.
- Only 5 of the 42 political parties stand any chance of forming the next government
Hmm, not sure how exactly you justify that only 5 of the 42 political parties stand any chance of forming the next government. Somare’s last coalition government was made up of more than 5 coalition partners – so obviously more than 5 parties do have the opportunity to be a part of government.
It was just an opinion, if you look at it, PNC has 88, PNG Party has 87, THE has 72 followed by National Alliance and PANGU with 73 and 59 respectively. All other parties have less than 50 candidates so you would think that the parties with more candidates stand a better chance of having more of their candidates go through and a better chance of forming a coalition.
Again, this was just an opinion
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