Papua New Guinean general election, 2017
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
All 111 seats in the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Papua New Guinea will hold its 2017 National Election from 24 June to 8 July 2017.
The writs for the election were issued on 20 April, and candidate nominations closed on 27 April.
Sir Michael Somare, the first Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, is retiring as a Member of National Parliament at the election. Somare has served continuously since he was first elected to the pre-independence House of Assembly in 1968, an unbroken term of 49 years.
The 111 members of the National Parliament are elected from single-member constituencies by preferential voting; voters are given three preferences, with a candidate declared elected once they receive over 50% of preference votes.
Important dates in the election are listed below.
24 July
The Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission reports in preliminary figures that 3332 candidates have nominated to contest the election, 165 candidates of which are women.
There has reportedly been less activity in the 2017 election compared to previous elections, with PNG National Party Leader Kerenga Kua saying "There is less colour, less movement, and that's not good, because you need to have some level of activity for educational purposes". Four people died in clashes regarding the election, with several candidates attacked during campaigning or nominations, to which Electoral Comisisoner Patilias Gamato said "We have not gone into polls yet but already people are engaging in violent activities, threats and intimidation — that's unnecessary."
Ezekiel Anisi, MP for Ambunti-Dreikikir Open died suddenly on 24 May 2017 at a Port Moresby guesthouse in the midst of his re-election campaign.
...
Wikipedia