James Marape was brought back to his 11th parliament as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea after a tense and violent electoral term that lasted about six weeks.
Marape – who became prime minister in 2019 after ousting his predecessor and former party leader Peter O’Neill – was invited to form a government by the governor-general after his Pangu Pati secured 36 seats and secured deals with coalition partners, bringing his number to over 80.
O’Neill had hoped to regain the top spot but was disappointed after only 14 members were declared for his rival party, the People’s National Congress (PNC).
The new parliament met for the first time on Tuesday, although vote counting continued at 11 seats, and Marape was elected prime minister – 97 votes in favour, none against. O’Neill left the room before the vote took place.
On Tuesday, Marape assured Papua New Guinea that his party was “not for a region, not for a family, not for a person” but “belongs to this country”.
“Today I want to offer comfort to every Papua New Guinean, wherever you are, as was shown and reflected in Parliament, where 100% of MPs turned out to vote not just for me, but for the mandate that collectively the coalition secured because we went to the elections as partners,” he said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sent his congratulations, tweeting: “Congratulations James Marape on your re-election as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. The Australia PNG partnership is special: we are neighbors, friends and family. Australia is committed to working with the Government of PNG to further deepen our broad bilateral relationship and address shared regional challenges.”
O’Neill said he left the Chamber in protest at the fact that Parliament had sat and voted on a Prime Minister while some seats were still being counted.
“I didn’t vote for Marape just because I can’t support a leader who wasn’t properly elected by voters,” O’Neill said. “I can’t vote for what’s wrong. I went out and gave our party deputies a chance to vote at their conscience.”
O’Neill had filed an urgent motion to seek orders to prevent Parliament from sitting that week, arguing that a declaration of all 118 seats was required for Parliament to convene. The Supreme Court refused to issue the orders because there was no urgency to the request.
The election was plagued by violence, with 50 election-related deaths reported by the end of July. There were also reports of voter fraud, the destruction of ballot boxes and the takeover of polling stations by candidates. Up to a million people were believed to have been disenfranchised because the electoral roll had not been updated for a decade.
The new PNG parliament is represented by women for the first time since 2017. Two women were elected – Central Governor Rufina Peter and Rai Coast MP Kessy Sawang. They are only the eighth and ninth female MPs ever elected to Parliament in PNG’s nearly 50-year history.