It is unsurprising to see that the NA has mastered the numbers to install its second term of reign in office with Sir Michael as the PM. Because it was in the previous government, it was able to push a major fundraising drive, nominated a good number of candidates throughout the country and helped fund their elections. It had the political resources to drive such a financial campaign which other parties lacked.
It is however accurate to argue that the people did not vote for NA to be in government. What NA did was to go after people who already had wide prominence and supported them in such a way that it is basically using these people as the means to an end. The people did not vote for the party but for the candidate. The appearance of Somare only added value and credibility to the choice of the people's candidate. NA will now have to work to reward why people should vote its candidates in the coming elections and in so doing it will consolidate its support base and attract its non-supporters. I only hope that it does not go to lengths of extravagance to do so especially at the end of its term in government as we witnessed in the last few months of the last Parliament.
Thanks to the electoral reforms and the political parties integrity law, one of the promising outcomes of the current elections,is that our political culture might begin to take a more serious interest in political parties. I think we are set to see an increasing competition amongst political parties as they market their policies and ideological platforms. We can expect that people will begin to take political parties seriously and that will inflate the development of moral and ideological values in our political culture.
