General elections were held in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

between 5 and 26 June 1982.King, Peter. 1989. “Parties and Outcomes in the 1982 Elections.” In
Pangu Returns to Power: The 1982 Elections in Papua New Guinea
', edited by Peter King, 1–26. (Canberra: Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University), pp16–17 The result was a victory for 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 ...

, which won 51 of the 109 seats. Voter turnout was 52%.

Campaign

A total of 1,125 candidates contested the election, of which seventeen were women. Only one,

Nahau Rooney Nahau Rooney (born in 1945 on Manus Island – died 15 September 2020 in Port Moresby) was a Papua New Guinean politician. From 1977 to 1987 she was a member of the newly founded post-independence National Parliament of Papua New Guinea. Early ...

, was elected. She had been standing for re-election, as had MPs Waliyato Clowes and Josephine Abaijah, who both lost their seats.

Results

Following the elections, several elected MPs changed their party affiliation; the Pangu Party gained ten MPs to hold 61 seats and the National Party gained six MPs to hold 19. The People's Progress Party lost a seat, while the Melanesian Alliance lost two and the United Party lost three. All members of the Diro Independents Group left to join other parties, with no MPs left sitting as independents.

Aftermath

When the newly elected National Parliament met,

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 ...

was elected Prime Minister, defeating

John Momis John Momis (born 3 March 1942) is a Bougainvillean politician who served as the President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea between 2010 and 2020. Momis served as a Catholic priest from 1970 until 1993, becoming active ...

66–40. Dennis Young was elected Speaker."The Chief" regains his leadership after a bitter PNG campaign
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', September 1982, pp15–17

References

{{Papua New Guinean elections Elections in Papua New Guinea Papua 1982 in Papua New Guinea National Parliament of Papua New Guinea Election and referendum articles with incomplete results