by KEVIN PAMBA
Six-way battle for Ialibu-Pangia Open a record
THE Ialibu-Pangia Open electorate has
scored a rare feat by attracting only six candidates in the 2007
election.
This is not only the smallest number of candidates in this
election but since the first election for the House of Assembly in
1964.
Ialibu-Pangia Open has always been at the middle or lower end of
the scale in terms of the number of candidates who contested the
seat.
While all electorate continue to attract more candidates in each
election, Ialibu-Pangia has decided to go in the opposite
direction in a very big way.
To see only six candidates vying for a position in the Haus
Tambaran that is regarded as so attractive that every man and his
dog fights (literally in some electorate) to get in, speaks
volumes about the people of Ialibu-Pangia.
Not only that, this is an electorate in the region where the ‘big
man’ culture is so entrenched that every man and his son who
wields little bit of material and will power in every tribe and
clan thinks he is leadership material worthy of the seat in
Parliament.
But political aspirants in Ialibu-Pangia have felt otherwise.
Is this a sign of political maturity in the people of
Ialibu-Pangia?
One thing is for certain. The candidate who wins the Ialibu-Pangia
seat will be the most representative in terms of votes scored
given the smallest number of candidates that the votes will be
distributed.
The limited preferential voting (LPV) makes the winning candidate
even more representative.
The winning candidate may even come out of the first preference or
after the first elimination round of the LPV counting system.
Any of the above scenarios would arguably make the next
Ialibu-Pangia MP, the most popularly voted and representative
Parliamentarian.
He would be an MP that had attracted votes from across the
electorate, irrespective of existing, tribal, ethnic or other
divisions that determined voting patterns of the past.
The present MP and Opposition leader Peter O’Neill, is essentially
among other factors the beneficiary of votes cast by the
dominantly one major ethnic group who was frustrated over the
status quo at the time.
The Wiru-speaking ethnic group of Pangia district felt that three
terms of leadership by Roy Yaki from the Kewabi-speaking region of
Ialibu was of little benefit to them and they had to vote in a
Wiru.
Mr O’Neill, part Wiru and part Australian, piggybacked to
Parliament on that Wiru frustration.
Mr O’Neill has delivered to the electorate but predominantly to
the Wiru speaking area as often praised by letter writers to the
newspapers – that he is doing something for Pangia after a long
while.
The Opposition leader will then have to convince the rest of the
electorate that views of the letter writers is an inaccurate
portrayal of his distribution of resources and services at the
disposal to the Office of the MP for Ialibu-Pangia.
The Kewabi speakers who populate parts of Ialibu and Kuare in
Kagua will have to be convinced that the five years they have not
be victims of ethnic payback at the political level.
While the very low number of candidates is democratically
encouraging for Ialibu-Pangia, the ethnic pride and animosities
are significant undercurrents towards the voter preferences and
the outcome of after the elections.
There are three candidates from the Wiru side and three from the
Kewabi side.
If voter choices were to be predominantly determined by ethnicity,
the battle will be interesting.
But of course other factors do come into play in PNG elections
that people of Ialibu-Pangia will have to wait and see.
But on the whole and at the national level, their political
leaders have served them well in this election by reducing the
numbers of candidates to only six.
Whoever wins will
still be a very representative leader for the electorate.
One can only hope that the he does not belittle himself to an
ego-centric servant of the ethnic pride but see himself as
national leader willing to serve any Papua New Guinean
irrespective of ethnicity and tribal allegiance.
