Australia threatens PNG with Sanctions


FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has threatened to consider sanctions against Papua New Guinea if it abandons plans to hold mid-year elections.
PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has pledged a full, free and fair election for late June but is facing calls - including from his own deputy - to delay.
Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah says the poll should be pushed back for 12 months to give the Government more time to implement its polices.
He also argues there is potential for fraud because the electoral roll is only sixty per cent complete.
Senator Carr today significantly hardened Australia's line on the Government's plans.
"It is absolutely vital that Papua New Guinea, that the government of Prime Minister O'Neill commit unequivocally to this election," Senator Carr told Sky News.
The failure to hold elections would create a "shocking model" for the Pacific, he said.
"You've got Australia placed in a position where we'd have no alternative but to organise the world to condemn and isolate Papua New Guinea," he said.
"We'd be in a position of having to consider sanctions.
"So I take this opportunity to urge the government to see that those elections take place, keeping Papua New Guinea in the cycle of five-yearly elections."
The calls for an election delay follow months of political intrigue and instability in the 36-year-old country in which Mr O'Neill engaged in a power tussle with his predecessor, Sir Michael Somare.
Senator Carr says Australia will send 30 election observers to PNG for the poll to monitor electoral officers and assist with electoral rolls and IT systems.
Senator Carr's comments come just days after his junior minister Richard Marles said Australia was not contemplating the possibility of an election delay.
"Our focus at the moment is not contemplating the consequences of not holding them on time, but making sure the required support is there," Mr Marles said.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 15, 2012 at 7:37 AM

    Thank you Carr. Can you also warn Speaker Nape and Governor Parkop that they have no power to defer elections? We are ready to vote them out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 15, 2012 at 7:36 PM

    We are ready to vote, but we dont need carr to use threatening statements. PNG is a sovereign nation and it can decide for itself on its election issues. Is PNG surely ready for this polls? Only PNGs electoral commisioner will answer that and not carr. So carr, shut your childish mouth up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 15, 2012 at 7:50 PM

    Senator Carr you are an insult to Australians and pngians who shed blood to build this bond but if you care go ahead and mobilize the world to isolate us. You did that to Fiji but Fiji did not starve to death. You know why? We Melanesians live off our land so what are you going to suffocate us from senator? You can take your aid plus the 100 computer back. You can take your rice and lamp flaps back. You take whatever you have on my land back and we will still survive. So zip up senator unless you can really sanction png.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 17, 2012 at 1:14 PM

    Carr well done and we thank you for your boldness. Our power hungry leaders thought they could hide behind sovereignty if they know and whatever is left of it. Yes, some talk of lamb flaps but one of their power hungry leaders in charge of health is not banning the import because he will lose support of lamb flap loving voters. Aid withdrawal might not hurt much but trade sanctions will. So let us be real and thank Carr for his timely warning of a real possibility should our power hungry leaders not let us exercise universal suffrage on time as set.

    ReplyDelete

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