National Parliament of Papua New Guinea

The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea but gained its current name after the nation was granted independence in 1975.

National Parliament of Papua New Guinea
10th Parliament
Type
Type	Unicameral
Term limits	5 years
History
Founded	1964
Leadership
Speaker	Job Pomat since 2 August 2017
Structure
Seats	111 (89 open electorates and 22 provincial electorates)
Political groups	Government      National Congress (26)      Pangu (12)      Melanesian Alliance (10)      People's Progress (5)      Unaffiliated (4)      Our Development (2)      National (2)      Allegiance Party (1)      THE Party (1)      Independent (1) Opposition      National Alliance (11)      People's Party (3)      Country (2)      Social Democrats (2)      PNG Party (1)      Labour (1)      Coalition for Reform (1)      Melanesian Liberals (1)      Democratic Movement (1)      Movement for Change (1)      One Nation (1)      United (1) Crossbench      United Resources (12)      Unaffiliated (7)      Independent (2)
Elections
Voting system	Instant-runoff voting
Last election	24 June 2017 - 8 July 2017
Meeting place
National Parliament House, Port Moresby
Website
www.parliament.gov.pg

The 111 members of parliament serve five-year terms, 89 of whom are chosen from single-member "open" electorates, which are sometimes referred to as "seats" but are officially known as constituencies. The remaining 22 are chosen from single-member provincial electorates: the 20 provinces, the autonomous province of Bougainville (North Solomons), and the National Capital District. Each provincial member becomes governor of their province unless they take a ministerial position, in which case the governorship passes to an open member of the province.[1]

From 1964 until 1977 an Optional Preferential Voting System was used. The first past the post system was used from 1977 until 2002. Electoral reforms introduced by former Prime Minister Mekere Morauta introduced Limited Preferential Voting, in which voters numbered three preferred candidates. LPV was first used nationally in the 2007 election.[2]

As in other Commonwealth realms, the party or coalition with the most seats in the parliament is invited by the Governor-General to form a government, and its leader subsequently becomes Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. The Prime Minister then appoints his cabinet from fellow parliament members. Members of parliament are seated in a similar manner to other Westminster system parliaments, but use chairs instead of benches.

Papua New Guinea has a fractious political culture, and no party in the history of parliament has yet won a majority.[1] Therefore, negotiations between parties have always been necessary to form governments. New governments are protected from votes of no confidence during their first 18 months and during the last 12 months before a national election. More recently, in a move aimed at further minimizing no-confidence motions, then-Prime Minister Mekere Morauta introduced changes that prevented members of the government from voting in favour of such a motion.

All citizens over the age of 18 may vote, although voting is not compulsory.[3]

Latest election

Main article: 2017 Papua New Guinean general election

Party	First preference votes	%	Seats	+/–
People's National Congress Party	1,039,940	13.16	28
National Alliance Party	484,300	6.13	15
Triumph Heritage Empowerment Rural Party	323,951	4.10	4
Pangu Party	322,049	4.08	9
United Resources Party	310,282	3.93	10
People's Progress Party	273,839	3.46	5
Papua New Guinea Party	216,527	2.74	5
PNG National Party	186,279	2.36	3
People's Party	138,395	1.75	2
Social Democratic Party	129,266	1.64	2
People's Labour Party	127,989	1.62	2
Grassroots United Front Party	124,223	1.57	0
United Party	111,786	1.41	1
PNG One Nation Party	103,515	1.31	1
Christian Democratic Party	100,731	1.27	1
People's Democratic Movement	100,547	1.27	1
Coalition for Reform Party	99,011	1.25	1
People's Movement for Change Party	74,747	0.95	1
People's Action Party	70,365	0.89	0
Trust PNG Party	66,513	0.84	0
New Generation Party	65,662	0.83	0
Melanesian Alliance Party	63,737	0.81	1
PNG Country Party	53,823	0.68	1
Model Nation Party	49,641	0.63	0
PNG Youths Party	41,017	0.52	0
Our Development Party	35,186	0.45	1
PNG Socialist Party	34,791	0.44	0
PNG Constitutional Democratic Party	28,702	0.36	0
Papua New Guinea First Party	28,323	0.36	0
Paradise Kingdom Party	23,239	0.29	0
SOM Pioneer Party	22,813	0.29	0
Nation's Interest Party	20,419	0.26	0
Melanesian Liberal Party	16,429	0.21	1
People’s Freedom Party	14,436	0.18	0
PNG Destiny Party	7,495	0.09	0
PNG Greens Party	7,291	0.09	0
Stars Alliance Party	6,502	0.08	0
Mapai Levites Party	6,385	0.08	0
National Conservative Party	2,773	0.04	0
Wantok In Godly Services Party	2,435	0.03	0
People’s Resources Awareness Party	496	0.01	0
Republican Party	101	0.00	0
Independents	2,967,067	37.54	14
Unavailable[lower-alpha 1]	–	–	2	–
Invalid/blank votes	145,760	–	–	–
Total	8,048,778	100	111	0
Registered voters/turnout			–	–
Source: Development Policy Centre

See also

• Women in the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea
• Elections in Papua New Guinea
• List of Speakers of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea
• Members of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, 2002–2007
• Members of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, 2007–2012
• Members of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, 2012–2017
• Members of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, 2017–2022
• List of legislatures by country
• Politics of Papua New Guinea

Notes

1. These results omit the figures for Central Bougainville (where a recount took place) and Henganofi

References

1. "About Our Parliament". National Parliament of Papua New Guinea.
2. "Papua New Guinea National Elections 2012: Final Report". Commonwealth of Nations. 13 September 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
3. "Enrolment Awareness". Electoral Commission of Papua New Guinea.

External links

• Official website