Highlights of General Election 2022

The National National

General Election 2022 (GE22) saw the election of two women Members of Parliament MPs into the 11th Parliament, after none was elected in the last general election.
In GE12, a record three women MPs were elected into the ninth parliament.
Since Independence and after nine GEs (including 2017), only nine women made it to Parliament.
GE22 saw a total of 12 parties winning at least one seat each (eight in GE17).
In GE17, 21 parties won seats, but 22 won in GE22.
In GE22, Papua New Guineans have knocked out 35 MPs in the 111-seat 10th Parliament.
They sent 50 new faces (including seats vacated by the seven deaths of incumbents and the seven new seats) to the expanded Papua New Guinea (PNG) 118-seat 11th Parliament.
North Bougainville MP late William Nakin, the 10th MP to die in office, who passed away just before counting, has been declared winner.
The seat has been declared vacant and the by-election process to start to elect a new MP.
Two more seats remain vacant – Wewak after the passing of elected MP Kevin Isifu and Enga’s Lagaip seat.
In the process, seven cabinet ministers lost their jobs, 10 independents were victorious (in GE17 also 10).
Timeline of events from this month back to April for General Election 2022 (GE22)

  • Dec 14 – First election official charged and arrested in Port Moresby.
    Southern Highlands election manager Alwynn Jimmy was arrested and charged, for allegedly misappropriating K5million from the provincial electoral trust account meant for election operations.
    Nov 21-25 – PNGEC post-general election review.
  • Election managers and PNG Electoral Commission (PNGEC) officials gathered to discuss a way forward for PNGEC.
    They also agreed that the first trench of funding allocation from Budget 2023 would go towards updating the common roll in preparation for LLG elections next year.
    Aug 18 – The first of 102 election petition cases lodged at Waigani by Henry Ame challenging the Goroka Open declaration.
    Aug 9 – First sitting of the 11th Parliament.
    Aug 5 – Return of electoral writs after two previous deadlines were not sufficient.
    July 29 – Close of writs extended by a week to Aug 5.
  • There were only 30 or 36 MPs declared on that Friday with election managers going in and out of PNG EC headquarters.
  • Sinai was so busy accepting writs from election managers, he cancelled a media press conference he called the week before.
    July 9-22 – Polling period, with the National Capital District (NCD) and Hela the first to have one-day polling.
    April 27 – Nominations close and candidate box numbers are given out for campaigning.
    There were allegations and videos circulating online throughout the entire counting period of vote rigging and election tampering in Enga, Hela, Southern Highlands and even here in NCD, but nothing was publically acknowledged.
    On a positive note, there weren’t as many reported cases of election- related violence perpetrated against women and girls, as initially predicted by officials.
    There were killings in the highlands, but those were isolated and not wholly gender-based.
    Sinai observed that the New Guinea Islands was the most coordinated and peaceful in terms of GE22 operations and was surprised to hear of what happened in Markham and Kabwum, which are usually violence-free districts.
    It is the recommendation of both domestic and international observers that the whole electoral process must be reviewed and reformed, with suggestions ranging from having multiple commissioners, decentralising some of PNGEC’s powers and having the census done.