General elections were held in the

Territory of Papua and New Guinea The Territory of Papua and New Guinea, officially the Administrative Union of the Territory of Papua and the Territory of New Guinea, was established by an administrative union between the Australian-administered territories of Papua and New G ...

between 19 February and 11 March 1972. They saw the election of the country's first female MP,

Josephine Abaijah Dame Josephine Abaijah, (born 23 June 1940) is a Papua New Guinean former politician. She was the first woman to be elected to the House of Assembly in 1972. Biography Born in Misima and one of 17 children, Abaijah began working in the Departm ...

Electoral system

The

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

was expanded from 94 to 107 members, consisting of 100 elected members, four civil servants and three members nominated by members of the House to represent special interest groups. The 100 elected members were elected from 82 open constituencies and 18 regional constituencies, from each of which a single member was elected by

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

. Voters could vote for a candidate in both their local open constituency and the regional constituency covering their area. Candidacy in the regional constituencies was limited to people who had received the Intermediate Certificate (or an equivalent) from school. Prior to the elections, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18.New, younger voters pose uncertainty at PNG polls
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', January 1971, p26 A total of 1,384,780 voters were enrolled.Report of the United Nations Visiting Mission to observe the elections to the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly in 1972
United Nations To reduce the reliance on 'whispered' votes (in which illiterate voters told polling officials who they wished to vote for), photos of the candidates were added to ballot papers.

Campaign

A total of 611 candidates contested the 100 seats in the

,Party politics to the fore in PNG poll
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', February 1972, pp26–27 of which four were women and 74 were incumbents running for re-election. Two seats – East Sepik Regional and West Sepik Coastal Open – had only one candidate, both of whom (

Michael Somare Sir Michael Thomas Somare (9 April 1936 – 26 February 2021) was a Papua New Guinean politician. Widely called the "father of the nation" (), he was the first Prime Minister after independence. At the time of his death, Somare was also the lo ...

of the

Pangu Party The Pangu Pati, also known as the Pangu Party or Papua and Niugini Union Pati, is a political party in Papua New Guinea. As of September 2019, the party had 23 of 111 seats in the National Parliament. History The party was founded in June 1967 ...

and Brere Awol respectively) were returned unopposed. Incumbent MP for Morobe Regional,

Tony Voutas Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

, chose not to run after becoming an official within the Pangu Party. Other incumbents stepping down included

Percy Chatterton Sir Percy Chatterton (8 October 1898 – 25 November 1984) was an English-born Papua New Guinean educator, clergyman and politician. He served as a member of the House of Assembly from 1964 to 1972. Biography Chatterton was born in Ashton up ...

(Moresby Open).

Results

Only 38 of the 72 incumbents that contested the elections were re-elected. The new House of Assembly had 37 members of the United Party, 11 from the

People's Progress Party The People's Progress Party is a political party in Papua New Guinea. It was founded on 11 November 1969 by Julius Chan and Warren Dutton, forming a caucus of eleven members of the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea. Following independ ...

, 18 members of the

, 8 members of the Niugini National Party, and 3 from the Mataungan Association.

Aftermath

Following the elections

was able to form a coalition government including his Pangu Party, the People's Progress Party, the Niugini National Party, the Mataungan Association and a group of independents led by John Guise.It's the moment of truth for PNG and testing time for a new leader
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', May 1972, pp19–21 Somare's bloc nominated Perry Kwan for the post of

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

; Kwan won by a vote of 49–48 against United Party candidate Matthias Toliman. However, Kwan resigned from the post June, saying he was too inexperienced for the role.

Barry Holloway Sir Barry Blyth Holloway, KBE (26 September 193416 January 2013)"PNG’s first ...

was elected to replace him. A new government was formed led by Somare as Deputy Chairman of the Administrator's Executive Council.New ministry is "good"
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', June 1972, p11

Notes

References