The Pangu Pati (Pangu Party), officially Papua na Niugini Yunion Pati (), is a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

and developmentalist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in Papua New Guinea. The party is the oldest political party in Papua New Guinea and has held all levels of government throughout its history. As of 2023, it is the largest party in the

National Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

History

The Pangu Pati was established on 13 June 1967, in order to contest the elections of

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

(

Papua and New Guinea The Territory of Papua and New Guinea , officially the Administrative Union of the Territory of Papua and the Territory of New Guinea, was established by an administrative union between the Australian-administered territories of Papua and New ...

). At the time of its founding, the party stood-out as its ideals were for a political unification of Papua and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, stronger economic development and to grow the national income. Other parties, such as the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP), were in favour of Australian statehood. Although the party, and its candidates, were not in a formal political union, there were ten candidates of Pangu that were elected to the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

. The 1972 election, the last under Australian authority, saw Pangu-endorsed candidates win eighteen seats, with a total of pro-Pangu candidates reaching twenty-six. Somare later served as

Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea The prime minister of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea () is Papua New Guinea's head of government, elected by the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea, National Parliament and formally appointed by the Governor-General of Papua New ...

as the leader of the Pangu Party from 1972 to 1980 and from 1982 to 1985. In 1985,

Paias Wingti Paias Wingti (born 2 February 1951) is a Papua New Guinean politician. He served as the third Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, prime minister of Papua New Guinea between 1985 and 1988, and again from 1992 to 1994. Early life and education Win ...

led a faction of the party to split with Somare, and Wingti won a no-confidence vote against Somare, succeeding him as prime minister. In 1988, Somare was replaced as leader of Pangu by Rabbie Namaliu who served as prime minister from 1988 to 1992. Somare would then become leader of the National Alliance Party. At the

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

, the party won 6 of 109 seats, under the leadership of Chris Haiveta. After that election, Somare returned to power as prime minister. Pangu became a member of his coalition government, and continued to support the Somare government after the 2007 elections, in which Pangu won 5 seats. It won only one seat at the 2012 election, that of Angoram MP Ludwig Schulze, but was left unrepresented when Schulze died in March 2013. In August 2014, Deputy Opposition Leader Sam Basil crossed to Pangu and reactivated its parliamentary wing, taking on the leadership. The party's numbers increased to two in August 2015 when William Samb won a by-election in Goilala Open, then to nine following the 2017 elections. At the 2022 elections, Pangu won a decisive first-place showing, its best since 1982, with 39 seats.

James Marape James Marape (born 24 April 1971) is a Papua New Guinean politician who has served as the prime minister of Papua New Guinea since May 2019. He has been a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since July 2007, representing the el ...

, who had defected from the previously largest party, the PNC, to Pangu, continued his tenure as Prime Minister. This followed several other defections from the PNC to Pangu, largely attributed to the protracted crisis of leadership under Prime Minister O'Neill.

History

Electoral results

Notes

References

Further reading