Peter O’Neill has been reappointed as prime minister of Papua New Guinea amid a shaky start to the new parliament, with a power blackout and two MPs turning up to take the same seat.

The opening of the 10th PNG parliament – which has no women despite the highest number of female candidates in the country’s democratic history – follows a chaotic campaign and election. It included violence and arson, allegations of voter fraud and bribery, and at least one attempted kidnapping.

Voting finished earlier this month but the election process was not completed until MPs from the numerous parties negotiated coalitions and voted for a prime minister. A vocal group of more than 40 MPs, named the National Alliance, declared they intended to keep O’Neill from being elected.

However, despite the results for more than 20 seats not yet returned by last week, O’Neill’s People’s National Congress – which led the tally but did not have a majority – was invited to attempt to form government.

On Wednesday morning the new parliament sat with what was believed to be the largest number of undeclared seats in PNG history and O’Neill was re-elected as prime minister by 60 votes to 46.

It came just one day after the PNG supreme court threw out an application to have O’Neill’s election in his own seat declared void.

The vote was delayed when two individuals attempted to take the seat of Gumine in the Chimbu province and refused to leave the chamber. PNC candidate Nick Kuman was eventually sworn in, despite a live challenge to the legality of the electoral official who declared his win, Radio New Zealand reported.

O’Neill is now set to lead PNG for his second term after a highly controversial five years in office. During this election he faced criticism over the conduct of sitting MPs, as opposition candidates accused the governing party of interfering with the vote.

“Regardless of the outcome of this election and regardless of where we sit on this floor of parliament, our people and nation’s interests must be our common goal,” he said in his speech on Wednesday.

“No government is ever perfect, no government delivers policy without challenges. In our last government, we admit where we could have done things better – and we make improvements.”

In his speech he also acknowledged the challenging campaign and committed to a full review of electoral processes but said it had been the most peaceful in PNG’s history.

The months-long campaign was fraught with incidents, allegations and violence, and extensive legal challenges are expected to come before the courts.



Gorethy Kenneth, a senior political journalist with the Post Courier newspaper who has covered three national elections, said this one was not as violent as in 2002 but it was “a hectic campaign”.

“One of the highland seats is still in chaos – not really bad – but they are still counting while the parliament is being formed now,” Kenneth said. “There are five seats yet to be declared, which is an outcome of a lot of issues they faced with the electoral role: infighting, tribal fighting, fighting with the scrutineers. The electoral roll was one of the main issues.”

Kenneth said much of the campaigning occurred on social media, which was more difficult to monitor, and there was a late show of support for the incumbent party.

A group gathers at a rally in the Papua New Guinea capital, Port Moresby, during an election campaign fraught with incidents. Photograph: Eric Tlozek/AP

“That’s why there was a lot of punishing and mud slinging,” she said. “There was trouble. For example, in the New Guinea islands region … a couple of people died – election related. This region, where I come from, is normally a peaceful election province.”

Four people were killed in an election-related shooting and dozens of scrutineers arrested for destroying ballot boxes in some seats.

Airports and roads were shut in Mount Hagen as counting irregularities prompted violent protests. In Port Moresby, opposition and government MPs clashed at the airport.

The Commonwealth Observer Group called for an urgent review after thousands of claims were made of people being removed from the roll and unable to vote, and alleged instances of vote buying and the misuse of government funds for pork-barreling.

Bizarre scenes played out in the seat of north-west Port Moresby, where former prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta, an active opponent of O’Neill’s, won the vote. However, the returning electoral officer went missing without signing the writ, emerging at a hotel some time later in front of a local TV news crew, declaring the third-place candidate the winner. The election manager for the district later said the signed writ was not legal and the officer had been formally replaced after claiming he was ill.

Morauta later said the nation was in “crisis” after five years of O’Neill and accused “rogue” police officers loyal to the PM of attacking his aides at the airport. Morautu suggested it was the same group accused of attempting to kidnap MP Richard Masere, a fellow anti-O’Neill National Alliance member.

According to the allegation, the kidnappers were led by Masere’s failed opposition candidate from the PNC who, O’Neill later told media, was no longer a member of the party, SBS reported.

All three members of PNG’s Electoral Advisory Committee resigned, alleging the electoral commission would not provide information for them to conduct their role.

On Tuesday the electoral commissioner, Patilias Gamato, defended his running of the election.

“People have their own opinion, they can say anything they want to say,” he said on Tuesday. “But my judgement is as long as I return the writs of 111 seats, it is a successful election.”

Gomato had made headlines midway through the ballot when he took out a court order to stop a well-known political blogger from referring to him as “Patilias Tomato”.

The incident, as well as the banning of local media from counting rooms, prompted accusations of government attempts to stifle free speech.