Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
elects on the national level a
legislature
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
. The
National Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
has 111 members, elected for a five-year term in single-seat
constituencies
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...
.
Papua New Guinea has a
multi-party
In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coa ...
system, with numerous
parties
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...
in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and
parties
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...
must work with each other to form
coalition governments. The first-past-the-post voting system was previously used, but in 2002 the limited
Instant-runoff voting system was enacted into law and first used during the 2007 national election and 2008 local elections.
Electorates
Members of Parliament represent the 111 single-member
electorate
Electorate may refer to:
* The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate''
* The dominion of a Prince-elector
The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, ...
s. The 20
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
, the
Autonomous Region of Bougainville
Bougainville ( ; ; Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil''), officially the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Tok Pisin: ''Otonomos Region bilong Bogenvil''), is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. The largest island is Bougainville Island, while the re ...
and the
National Capital District
A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any politi ...
each elect a governor, who is also a representative in the parliament. Additionally there are 89 local ("Open") electorates, of which three are in the National Capital District and 86 are in the provinces, with boundaries of the latter corresponding directly to administrative
districts.
The
Electoral Boundaries Commission, reporting in February 2006, suggested an additional 26 Open electorates be created. Legally, electoral boundaries must be reviewed every ten years, but due to political instability, no review occurred for 30 years. The future of the provincial electorates is under debate.
Lady Carol Kidu, after being elected as the only female Member of Parliament in the 2007 general election, called for seats to be reserved for women to improve the representation of women in Parliament. She suggested that the 20 provincial seats could be reserved for women by the 2012 election.
Electoral system
Candidates are elected using limited
instant-runoff voting where the voter has to rank 3 candidates, known locally as Limited preferential voting. A candidate has to have the majority of votes to be elected. If no one has an absolute majority of first preference votes, the candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated, and the votes are transferred to the voters next preferred candidate until one candidate has at least half of the remaining votes. The current system was first used for a by-election in 2003,
and subsequently for the
2007 Elections
The following elections occurred in the year 2007.
* Electoral calendar 2007
* Elections in 2007
* 2007 United Nations Security Council election
Africa
* 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress
* 2007 Algerian legislative el ...
. Previously,
first-past-the-post voting
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...
was used.
Latest elections
See also
*
Electoral calendar
This national electoral calendar for 2022 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2022 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
* 16 January: Se ...
*
Electoral system
An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...
References
External links
PNG Electoral CommissionAdam Carr's Election Archive
{{Papua New Guinea topics