Papua New Guinea - National Parliament House

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

National Parliament House

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The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was first created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea, but gained its current name with the granting of independence in 1975.

The 109 members of the parliament all serve five-year terms. 89 members are elected from single-member "Open" electorates, which are sometimes referred to as "seats" but are officially known as constituencies. The remaining 20 are elected from single-member "Provincial" electorates, each covering a province-level division: the 18 provinces, the autonomous province of Bougainville (North Solomons), and the National Capital District. Each Provincial member becomes the Governor of the province, unless they take up a ministry, in which case the position of Governor passes to one of the Open members from the province.

From 1964 until 1977 an Optional Preferential Voting System was used. The first past the post system was used from 1977 until 2002. Electoral reforms introduced by former Prime Minister Mekere Morauta introduced Limited Preferential Voting, where voters number their first three preferred candidates. LPV was first used nationally in the 2007 election.

As in other Commonwealth Realms, the party or coalition with the most seats in the parliament is invited by the Governor-General to form a government, and their leader subsequently becomes Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, with the Prime Minister then appointing his cabinet from fellow members of the parliament.

Papua New Guinea has a fractious political culture and no party in the history of the parliament has yet won majority government. This has meant that negotiations between several parties have been necessary for governments to be formed. New governments are protected by law from votes of no confidence for the first 18 months of their term and in the last 12 months before a national election. More recently, in a move aimed at further minimizing no-confidence motions, then-Prime Minister Mekere Morauta introduced changes that prevented members of the government of the day from voting in favour of such a motion.

There is universal franchise for all citizens over the age of 18, although voting is not compulsory. (Source)

Papua New Guinea - Rainforest and Reef

PAPUA NEW GUINEA - A lush tropical paradise of island discovery and underwater reef adventure.

Sent by Ruth from Madang in Papua New Guinea. This is our first postcard from Papua New Guinea.

This is from Wikipedia : Papua New Guinea (pronounced /ˈpæpuːə njuː ˈɡɪni/ PAP-oo-ə new-GIN-ee, also /ˈpɑːpuːə/ PAH-poo-ə or /ˈpæpjuːə/ PAP-ew-ə; Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini) (PNG), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is a part of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua). It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region defined since the early 19th century as Melanesia. The capital is Port Moresby.

Papua New Guinea is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, with over 850 indigenous languages and at least as many traditional societies, out of a population of just under 7 million. It is also one of the most rural, with only 18% of its people living in urban centres. The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea.

The majority of the population lives in traditional societies and practice subsistence-based agriculture. These societies and clans have some explicit acknowledgement within the nation's constitutional framework. The PNG Constitution (Preamble 5(4)) expresses the wish for "traditional villages and communities to remain as viable units of Papua New Guinean society", and for active steps to be taken in their preservation.

The PNG legislature has enacted various laws in which a type of tenure called "customary land title" is recognised, meaning that the traditional lands of the indigenous peoples have some legal basis to inalienable tenure. This customary land notionally covers most of the usable land in the country (some 97% of total land area); alienated land is either held privately under State Lease or is government land. Freehold Title (also known as fee simple) can only be held by Papua New Guinea citizens.

After being ruled by three external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia in 1975. It remains a realm of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Papua New Guinea. Many people live in extreme poverty, with about one third of the population living on less than US$1.25 per day.