By ZACHERY PER

THE country suffers in poverty because its leaders don’t have the skills to run an economy or mobilise a country, PNG Country Party leader Jamie Maxtone-Graham said yesterday.
“Successive governments have governed the country, but they have not led it. There just isn’t the knowledge, the skills and the will to do the job.
“Because of this, the nation’s leaders sit in their Australian donated ‘ivory tower’ in Waigani, securely isolated from the rest of the country, pontificating about how to become more important rather than get on with the job they are supposed to do,” Mr Maxtone-Graham said in a statement.
He said PNG had been labelled a “failed state” because after 31 years of independence, there was still no understanding of what constitutes development or the necessary mechanisms that need to be put in place to allow development to happen.
He said it was time to form a government of the like-minded “to bring this country to a pathway of progress, fair justice and true development”.

We have many skilled leaders but the culture of corruption is too strong. They tend to be absorbed into the white collar crime wave.

Papua New Guinea Fights Vote-Rigging in Elections (Update1)

By Emma O'Brien


Michael Somare, Papua New Guinea prime minister June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Papua New Guinea holds general elections this week seeking to avoid the violence and vote rigging of the 2002 ballot, when an estimated 100 people died and electoral rolls were inflated as much as 300 percent.

``They get very volatile during elections because the stakes are high,'' Mike Manning, head of the PNG division of anti-corruption group Transparency International, said from the island of Rabaul. ``This is a serious business, lots of people who enter parliament have no money and when they get in they're set for life.''

Dead people and those who never existed are added to voter lists, Manning said. During more than three weeks of campaigning, violence erupted in the highlands region where a candidate was stabbed to death two weeks ago.

Prime Minister Michael Somare is bidding for a second consecutive term in the nation of 6 million people where highlands villagers didn't come into contact with Europeans until the 1930s. More than 2,000 extra soldiers and police will be deployed by the time voting opens on June 30. The country, 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Australia, shares the island of New Guinea with Indonesia.

Rich in natural resources such as copper, timber and gas, Papua New Guinea's unemployment rate is as much as 80 percent in urban areas. An Australian colony until 1975, about 37 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Most Volatile

The five highlands provinces running through the middle of the country, where two-thirds of the population lives, are the most volatile during elections because their communities are structured along tribal lines, said Paul Barker, director of the Institute of National Affairs in the capital, Port Moresby.

People live a semi-subsistence lifestyle centered on the trading of pigs, often with rival clans.

``There's a feeling if your tribe has someone in a position of authority they can deliver good things for their supporters,'' Barker said. ``It's a system of reciprocal benefits. If we do something for you, you'll do something for us down the line.''

Clan leaders direct members' votes and women are often barred from participating, with their ballot papers filled out by their husband or a male leader, Barker said.

``Quite a lot of deceased people have the vote here,'' he said. ``In PNG it's more a case of trying to restrain people from enrolling to vote.''

There are 22 registered political parties in Papua New Guinea, according to the electoral office, and more than 3,000 candidates. Voting runs until July 10 so officials can reach more remote areas.

Dead Souls

Electoral rolls have been inflated by as much as 300 percent in some highlands areas, Manning said.

``It doesn't just include dead people but people who have never existed,'' he said, adding that toddlers and babies are routinely enrolled as voters.

Transparency International will have an observer in all of Papua New Guinea's 109 electorates, though it can't monitor all the voting stations within them. Observers are just that, they can't intervene in any wrongdoing, Manning said.

Candidates have been known to bribe voters with fistfuls of cash according to both Manning and Barker, an allegation rejected by Somare.

``We have a system in place now to stop people from bribing, and we're funding parties better so they don't have to,'' the prime minister said by telephone from Port Moresby.

Papua New Guinea is seen as the fifth-most corrupt country in the Asia-Pacific, according to Transparency International.

Education, Employment

Somare has been prime minister three times, and his current administration is the first ever to serve a full five-year term. Improvements in the economy will win his National Alliance Party a new term, when it will focus on education and employment, Somare said.

``There are not enough young people getting jobs,'' he said. ``We have 50,000 school-leavers each year and we need to put more into our schools and training facilities.''

Opposition leader and head of the People's National Congress Party, Peter O'Neill, says he will be happy to double the number of seats the party has in Parliament to 20.

Representing the Ialibu Pangia seat in the highlands, O'Neill said law and order is one of his main campaign issues. Papua New Guinea has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world, according to the State Department.

``In my electorate there are 70,000 people and only four policemen,'' he said from the capital. ``We have issues of delivery of government services to the community.''

Gas Producer

Papua New Guinea could become the world's third-largest producer of liquefied natural gas by 2017, according to Oil Search Ltd., the nation's biggest oil producer. It currently has about 15 million tons a year of gas production capacity.

O'Neill said his party would review the royalties system that sees most proceeds from resource mining going to landowners. Eighty-seven percent of the land is privately owned and mineral deposits account for nearly two-thirds of export earnings.

The government's incentives for mining companies have resulted in about 15 exploration licenses issued in the past five years, Somare said, adding he would continue that process if he wins.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma O'Brien in Wellington on eobrien6@bloomberg.net

I noticed the expert in this case is based in NZ, how on earth could accurate reporting be conducted from miles across the ocean. I have not heard anything as yet about vote rigging for this elections. It's also interesting that many foreign stories reported are not published in our media. Anyone know why?