By Neil Ashdown
Papua New Guinea isn’t necessarily a regular fixture on the front pages of the BBC or the New York Times, but that changed this past week after a ruling by its Supreme Court left the country with two prime ministers. While there are signs that the impasse may have reached a resolution, it has still drawn attention to the way in which Papua New Guinea’s political system, supposedly based on the British parliamentary system, really works.
The roots of the problem lay in a change of government on August 2. Long-serving Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare was in a Singaporean hospital when 48 of his MPs defected to join the opposition and elected Finance Minister Peter O’Neill as his successor. At the time, O’Neill tellingly stated that “the numbers speak for themselves; it doesn’t matter whatever court you go to.”
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