In the last issue, we reported on the mission to Papua New Guinea (PNG) to consult with party secretariats and candidates about the newly-adopted limited preferential voting (LPV) system.

Date:  19 July 2007

The LPV system is just one of a suite of reforms adopted in recent years to strengthen PNG’s democracy. The new system is designed to encourage more accommodative behaviour between political parties and candidates. Another major reform is the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates, known as the OLIPPAC. This piece of legislation is designed to limit the ability of members of parliament to change parties during the parliamentary term. It also lays down minimum requirements for party status and rules to encourage more women to run for and win office.

In the lead-up to the June poll, International Projects offered a pilot education package for political parties and candidates to remedy some of the confusion about the new system, especially for new candidates who may not have been exposed to the information about the new system. Simultaneously, the package was designed to allow party secretariats easy access to relevant information for these new candidates.

Our consultations with political parties over the past year suggest that the new LPV system would result in voter confusion. The system offers voters three preferences. Formal votes must contain the names or numbers of the voters' preferences on the ballot paper. Ballot papers marked with an "X" in any of the three choices would be considered informal. It behoves parties seeking to maximise their electoral chances to ensure that their voters are absolutely clear about the requirements of casting a formal ballot and ensuring that they vote in a manner which will bring the maximum benefit of the LPV system to their preferred candidate.

Australian Labor International Projects developed the pilot training tool for parties in consultation with PNG stakeholders. The pack included generic how-to-vote templates and candidate posters, and otehr useful information. Importantly, the emphasis was on providing simple, workable information rather than providing overly technical documents including every detail of the new system.

Labor will send a senior team to observe the PNG elections beginning on 30 June 2007. Look out for a full report of the election observer team in our next edition.