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Papua New Guinean general election, 2007


General elections were held in Papua New Guinea from 30 June 2007 to 14 July 2007.

For the first time, the election did not use first past the post (which has in the past resulted in a very volatile political system, with the election of a candidate being largely a matter of chance due to the large number of candidates), but rather Limited Preferential Voting, in which voters number their three most preferred candidates. PNG Police reported three deaths caused by election-related violence during the election period, a large decrease in the 100 deaths which occurred during the 2002 elections. 11,000 police officers and soldiers were deployed throughout the country to police the elections and keep the peace.

Originally scheduled to end on 10 July, it was decided that the elections would be extended by five days due to delays in transporting ballot boxes caused by bad weather.

ABC Radio Australia reported that nearly four million votes were cast out of Papua New Guinea's population of about six million.

Early results on 15 July indicated that incumbent Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare's National Alliance Party was picking up more seats than other parties of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea's 109 seats. Final results were largely completed by 6 August, the deadline for the return of writs. Counting in two seats was extended for a few days due to legal challenges halting the counting process. The previous deadline was 30 July, but this was extended due to delays caused by bad weather and disruption of counting by some candidates and scrutineers.

In addition to the seats won by the National Alliance Party directly, thirteen independents joined the party after the election. Together with its coalition partners (which include the People's Action Party, the United Resources Party, the Pangu Party, the National Party, the Melanesian Liberal Party and the Melanesian Alliance Party) the National Alliance Party had the support of a substantial majority of the newly elected Members of Parliament.


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