PNG rebuffs Gillard's poll push


PAPUA New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has rebuffed pressure from Australia to hold elections on time.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday ratcheted up pressure by contacting Mr O'Neill directly, but he yesterday said the timing of polls was PNG's own business.

Canberra has repeatedly called on PNG to adhere to the June deadline for elections as set out by its constitution.

Ms Gillard's office issued a statement saying the pair "discussed the importance of holding national elections on time" and Ms Gillard had "welcomed Prime Minister O'Neill's statements that he supports the election proceeding on time."

But Mr O'Neill shrugged off the pressure yesterday.

"We appreciate the support of the Australian government, but it is for us to determine where we go with the elections in the coming months," Mr O'Neill told the ABC.

Australia is impoverished PNG's major aid donor and has pledged significant assistance to help the polls proceed, including electoral personnel and aerial capability to help transport ballots across the remote and rugged nation.

The election's timing was thrown into doubt earlier this month when PNG's parliament voted for a six month delay - a decision Mr O'Neill initially supported but later distanced himself from.

There was fresh speculation the June deadline was in doubt on Friday due to an investigation into the electoral commissioner, who is strongly committed to proceeding with the elections on their original date.

Canberra rankled PNG in March by suggesting Australia would "be in the position of having to consider sanctions" if PNG failed to hold elections in June.

In comments he later stepped back from, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Australia would "have no alternative but to organise the world to condemn and isolate" PNG, leading Port Moresby to caution against threatening its independence.

Politics in PNG have been in turmoil since late 2011, when the Supreme Court ruled Mr O'Neill's rise to power - via a parliamentary vote while then-leader Sir Michael Somare was recovering from illness in Singapore - was illegal.

Mr Somare, who has dominated politics in the country for decades, believes he is still the leader of the nation of 6.6 million people, and fresh elections are viewed as a way of resolving the dispute for good.


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Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 22, 2012 at 3:52 PM

    Gillard is shocked. O'Namah she supported has turned dictator! She should ask why Parliament has been meeting overtime? By now we should be in transition and caretaker mode. Supreme Court will make O'Namah pay. PNG is under God. Cheers to Gillard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousApril 22, 2012 at 4:34 PM

      Elections should proceed as scheduled. Intending candidates should take legal action on electrol com., govt sitting members.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousApril 23, 2012 at 10:43 AM

    I am an intending candidate and I have yet see the common roll update for my electorate in Chimbu. When I contested in 2007 my name and photo was mixed up with another candidate from another electorate when the posters came out two weeks before polling. My attempt to correct it with the incompetent EC failed so I lost. I know from experience that EC will not have the common roll completed on time therefore the ECr should be replaced with a competent person to conduct the elections in six months time as decided by Parliament. I see the elections failing in the highlands region and therefore you won't have a say in the formation of the next government. You will come in after the government is formed. This is not in the interest of the region with the biggest investment taking place now so I hope you highlands MPs will agree to defer the elections for six months

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 23, 2012 at 3:55 PM

    Australia should stop patronizing. The next time maybe the so called Ausaid should become more proactive by developing the capacity of the electoral commission.

    ReplyDelete

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