2nd term for PM James Marape

News that matter in Papua New Guinea

2^nd term for PM James Marape

PORT MORESBY: Tari-Pori MP James Marape was elected as Papua New Guinea (PNG) prime minister for a second term by 97 MPs present in the 118-seat 11^th Parliament yesterday.

The MPs included 12 whose General Election 2022 (GE22) writs were returned after the 4pm Aug 5 deadline for the return of writs.

Of the 33 seats that failed to meet the deadline, 22 seats have returned their GE22 writs.

Marape said plans to conduct a reform of ther electoral system and an audit of GE22 were to be launched soon.

He is also expected to name his Pangu Pati-led coalition Government’s caretaker cabinet as he sets in motion his plans for the next five years.

PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces below the news break and a few post-GE22 news updates as published by The National:

2nd term for PM Marape

August 10, 2022The NationalMain Stories

Marape, Finschhafen MP Rainbo Paita (middle) and Rachael Marape leaving Parliament. – Nationalpic by KENNEDY BANI

By STAFF REPORTERS
PRIME Minister James Marape, elected for a second term yesterday, plans to conduct a reform of the electoral system and an audit of the General Election 2022 (GE22).
He is expected to name a caretaker Cabinet from MPs in his coalition government as he sets in motion his plans over the next five years.
“The review will be the basis for us to reform the electoral processes to make sure that one citizen gets one vote,” he said.
“We must build a strong governance oversight arrangement for the Electoral Commission.
“We must adopt a systemised way of updating the common roll and deploy every means necessary to have reliable identification systems.
“We must seriously discuss biometric identification system and electronic voting and counting system.”
Marape said the Government was looking at adopting a biometric system and related options to strengthen polling and counting in future elections.
“One of the options we are looking at, is adopting India’s electronic voting machine (EVM) system from the state of Karnataka and if we consider technology to be an option going forward then we can use the biometric (BRV) for voter registration and verification, and electronic voting machine (EVM) for polling and counting.”
He said Karnataka with 50.6 million voters was able to complete polling using the electronic voting machine (EVM) in one day.

Governor General Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae (left) with Parliament speaker Job Pomat at Government House in Port Moresby yesterday. Pomat was sworn in at Government House after he was elected as Speaker for the 11th Parliament. – Nationalpic by NICKY BERNARD

He said the national census and the electoral reform would be conducted next year.
Marape told Parliament after being sworn in that an audit of the GE22 would be conducted.
He also said earlier this week there would be no reserved seats for women in Parliament.
Instead, the electoral process will be improved to allow more women to contest future general elections.
Two women have so far been elected.
Rufina Peter was elected the Central Governor.
Kessy Sawang was declared the Rai Coast MP yesterday. Peter, who contested under the People’s National Congress (PNC) party banner, unseated Robert Agarobe.
Just before Parliament convened yesterday, Sawang was celebrating her victory as “a win for Rai Coast”, a huge accomplishment by women, and a just reward for five years of hard work and proper planning.
“Rai Coast has huge potential which had not been fully realised in the past 47 years,” she said.
Peter and Sawang finished third in their seats during the 2017 general election.

5 more years at helm

August 9, 2022The NationalMain Stories

Front from left: Pangu Pati secretary Morris Tovebae, Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae, James Marape and Job Pomat at Government House yesterday. – Nationalpics by Kennedy Bani

By REBECCA KUKU and HELEN TARAWA
THE James Marape-led Pangu Pati has been invited by the Governor-General Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae to form the next government, after winning 36 seats – the highest by any single party.
Pangu has also managed to secure a coalition with other political parties and independent candidates, taking their total number to around 80 in the 118-seat Parliament.
“We will hit the ground running with a caretaker cabinet and a full cabinet (to be named) at the earliest,” Marape said.
“(Our) full to-do list will be announced on Sept 7, and a Supplementary Budget will be delivered on Sept 8. This is the benefit of having a continuing government because we had started the work of reconstructing our country over the past three years.
“We are looking forward to building on this.”
There are still 14 seats yet to be declared in the General Election 2022 (GE22).
Party secretary Morris Tovebae received the invitation from Sir Bob after Government House received the letter from the acting Political Parties Registrar Emmanuel Pok confirming that Pangu had won the most seats.
The first session of the 11th Parliament is expected to start at 10am today.
Clerk to Parliament Kala Aufa told The National that the 85 MPs whose writs were returned to Sir Bob last Friday would be sworn in by the Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika.
They would then elect a Speaker who will then go to Government House to be sworn in before returning to Parliament to officiate over the election of the prime minister.
After a prime minister is elected, Parliament will be adjourned so that he or she can go to Government House to be sworn in.
The prime minister will return to Parliament to deliver his maiden speech before the House is adjourned. He said sitting allocations would be given by the Sergeant-at-Arms Ralai Vali after Cabinet Ministers are named. Meanwhile, Madang MP Bryan Kramer said he hoped to attend today’s sitting although the writ from his electorate was yet to be returned to Government House.