Olympic Schedule - Olympic Results - All Events | London 2012

The Olympic games is on again, this time in London. PNG has fielded its team for this event and the first event PNG took part in was Judo which started last night. The first fight was lost, but fingers crossed for better news for our country. Overall, the team from China has dominated the first day with lots of Medals, most of them Gold. Brazil too has won its first Gold Medal with its first ever individual Gold in the Olympics in the sport of Judo in Sarah Menezes who won the women's 48Kg title. Find out more about the events and their times in the link below:

Olympic Schedule - Olympic Results - All Events | London 2012

Sir Michael Somare and Peter O'Neil Reconcile

What a glorious day it is for Papua New Guinea. To see two leaders humble themselves, push aside their differences and come together as one to form the next government of Papua New Guinea is one truly and unique Melanesian spirit of our people. Nowhere in the world will you see such a feat, this goes to show that we Papua New Guineans are very unique in our way of life, culture and tradition. I salute Sir Michael Somare for humbling himself and come to make peace with Peter O'Neil as it truly shows that our leaders care more about their people's needs and interest before their own. 

Left-Right: Pais Wingti (PDM), Sir Michael Somare (NA), Peter O'Neil (PNC) & Sir Julius Chan (PPP)

Parties aligning with Peter O'Neil's People's National Congress Party (PNC) include, Sir Michael's National Alliance Party (NA), Pais Wingti's People's Democratic Movement Party (PDM), Sir Julius Chan's People's Progress Party (PPP) and other smaller parties like that of Powes Parkop's Social Democratic Party (SDP). Due to this reconciliation and teaming up of past Prime Ministers, other elected members are moving in to join up with them to form the next government of Papua New Guinea. We will have to wait and see what unfolds in the next couple of weeks.

Will Papua New Guinea come under anarchy in the future?

Before we go into answering this question, let us first define anarchy. What is Anarchy? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anarchy), Anarchy is A: absence of government. B: a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of government authority. 

Now on to our answer on this matter; Will Papua New Guinea be without government rule in the future? I'll let my elder sibling, Slaggie, answer this question for us.

Whilst our current political environment has displayed indicators of a potential anarchy, I personally think we as a people will steer our government away from leading us into this potential chaos.

My reason for this is because:

• 90% of our country's population live a subsistence lifestyle, fending for oneself.  This same 90% has custodian of the 90% of land in this country. They have been living their daily life with very little or no help from the government. Hence, should there be an anarchy it will have no trickling effect to this 90% of the population.  Their lives will continue as usual because they have their own societal order well before outside government influence.

• In recent times, the age of technology (internet) has given our educated elites and the silent majority a voice/forum to express ourselves.  Those forums have allowed the once government fearing individuals to be able to voice their concern, criticise our politicians and bring people together to protest against issues of anarchy.  Hence, our politicians and government of today and tomorrow will be more careful in how they run our country because they now know that their political career will be thoroughly scrutinized by the public as compared to their predecessors.

• Our past governments have been voted into parliament along ethnic lines with very little consideration on the policy platform which they stood for in the first place. Candidates were voted in not based on their skill set or knowledge and experience but based on clans/tribes status and allegiance. Hence, we have been experiencing what we are currently experiencing as indicators of an anarchy . Having said that and with the influence of technology, the majority of our population are now becoming more educated in the type of people they should be voting and in addition our working class population are now participating more in the voting process.  Hence, you will have noticed that our people are no longer voting along clan lines but voting a candidate which they believe will deliver to them.  With such calibre of people we have in parliament, the more debate will we have in the house.  Thus, the chances of an anarchy is slim in the near future.

• My last point, we are a very unique group of people in the world.  We are called Melanesian. Our style of governing is very unique and vibrant at the same time. The way in which we manage this country has brought us to situations which according to the outside world "we are at the brink of an anarchy". At the end of the day our Melanesian side of life kicks in, we all come together in a houseman spirit, or clans gathering approach and express our apology over some bettlenut and pigs, shake hands and we forget the past.  We are a truly unique group of people in this world.

In all, Papua New Guinea will not likely go into anarchy.

2 Female Candidates elected - PNG 2012 Elections

What great news it is for the womenfolk of Papua New Guinea and the many others who support women in parliament. The first female to be declared was Delilah Gore for Sohe Open electorate with affiliation to Don Polye's THE Party. The other was Loujaya Toni, a singer and journalist who unseated his grandfather, Bart Philemon to win the Lae Open seat. Both have received praises from other elected members also and are now in camps with other parties to try and form goverment in the eight parliament of Papua New Guinea.

PNG Electoral Commission must employ Volunteers as polling officials in future elections

This is a recommendation to the Electoral commission to seriously consider doing in future elections. There are quite a number of complaints aired out already on obvious things the Electoral commission has failed in doing, preparedness for one, but what I'd like to talk about here is to do with the stoppage in counting due to polling officials complaining of not receiving their allowances or allowances being not enough. The commission should recruit volunteers to be polling officials to do the counting. We are always demanding and asking too much from our government, in times like this we should give back to our people, our government. We should volunteer to become polling officials and do the work for free, do it as a service to your government. If the Electoral commission employ volunteers, I'm very sure, the counting process will be less troublesome then it is now.

PNG 2012 Election Updates - Party standing as at 16:07, 18th July

The Status of all Parties in the 2012 National Election

Below is the party status showing the number of candidates endorsed, how many members have been elected and how many are currently leading in their respective electorates. Many elected thus far have been returned by their people, but unfortunately for some, the people have decided against, some of which include:

Job Pomat for Manus Open, Michael Sapau for Manus Provincial, Tony Aimo for Ambunti-Dreikikir Open, Arthur Somare for Angoram Open, Gabriel Kapris for Maprik Open, Koni Iguan for Markham Open, Martin Aini for Kavieng Open and Andrew Kumbakor for Nuku Open to name a few. We wish them well in their future endeavours and hope that they continue their desire, in their own little ways in helping improve the livelihood of their people.

Party	Endorsed	Declared	Leading
People’s National Congress Party	89	5	20
People’s Progress Party	40	4	1
Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party	72	3	11
PNG Party	90	2	7
National Alliance Party	75	2	5
Independent	2195	1	14
United Resources Party	48	1	6
People's Party	49	1	4
People's United Assembly Party	29	1	1
Melanesian Liberal Party	5	1	0
PANGU Pati	60	1	0
New Generation Party	27	1	0
Social Democratic Party	40	0	4
People’s Democratic Movement Party	19	0	3
Our Development Party	22	0	2
Coalition for Reform Party	15	0	2
PNG Country Party	46	0	1
People's First Party	1	0	1
People's Movement for Change Party	51	0	1
PNG Constitutional Democratic Party	39	0	1
PNG Labour Party	35	0	1
New Dawn Transformation Party	29	0	0
Mapai Levites Party	8	0	0
United Party	20	0	0
Mama Papa Graun Pati	20	0	0
League for Democracy Party	35	0	0
Kingdom First Party	5	0	0
Indigenous People's Party	44	0	0
Melanesian Alliance Party	37	0	0
Papua New Guinea National Party	43	0	0
People’s Freedom Pati	26	0	0
People’s Heritage Party	10	0	0
People’s Resources Awareness Party	10	0	0
Christian Democratic Party	26	0	0
People's Republlican Party	5	0	0
PNG Conservative Party	4	0	0
PNG Destiny Party	4	0	0
PNG Greens Party	6	0	0
PNG New Vision Party	12	0	0
Rural Development Party	2	0	0
Stars Alliance Party	22	0	0
Transform PNG Party	3	0	0
People’s Labour Party	24	0	0

2012 PNG National Elections - 2 more Candidates declared

Manus Province has completed its counting yesterday with a further 2 more declared MPs for the eight House of parliament which brings the total thus far of declared candidates to 3 including Peter O'Neil for the Ialibu-Pangia seat. The two MP's are Ronnie Knight for Manus Open defeating Job Pomat, the former seating MP, and Charlie Benjamin for Manus Provincial ousting Michael Sapau. With the 3 declared, the Party with the leading number of MPs so far is the People's National Congress Party with 2, Peter O'Neil and Charlie Benjamin, and second is the New Generation Party with 1.

What Now? For a Losing candidate...

Being in Government is not the only way to help your people. You in your own capacity can do little things to alleviate the everyday troubles of your people. Seek funds from business houses, government grants, Donor groups or outside the country to help implement your plans for improving the lives of your people. For those that have surplus finance or some remaining from your campaign in the elections, you can use it to start your plans to help your people. Help finance a new classroom or teachers house for the children; Build a bridge or repair/improve the road conditions in your area so that your people can get their produce to the market; Pay the school fee for all the children in your community that cannot go to school as a result. Create an avenue where youths can venture into like sports, create a tournament and sponsor it, identify talents and nurture them. These are some of the many things that you can do by not being in the Government and still carry out your desire to help your people, after all it is this desire that caused you to contest the elections, IS IT NOT?

PNG 2012 National Election Update

Almost all provinces have finished voting and are now into counting of votes. Only one electorate has completed its counting and declared a winner, that is the Ialibu-Pangia Electorate with the declared winner as  Peter O'Neil. Other electorates within the Southern Highlands region are almost complete as well. Sir Michael Somare is currently leading in the East Sepik Provincial electorate. Other current sitting members currently leading in their respective electorates include, Powes Pakop in N.C.D Provincial, Andrew Mald in Moresby North-East, Gabriel Kapris in Maprik Open, Job Pomat in Manus Open, Sir Julius Chan in New Ireland Provincial, Byron Chan in Namatanai Open, James Marape in Tari Open, Don Polye in Kandep Open and Samuel Abal in Wabag Open, to name a few. Similar to previous elections, anomalies are encountered during the counting but otherwise all is going well.