The People's Labour Party is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

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 ...

History

It was founded in April 2001 by Madang businessman and former MP

Peter Yama Peter Yama (born 12 December 1955) is a businessman and Papua New Guinean politician. He is the current governor for Madang Province. Previously he was Member of Parliament for Usino Bundi between 1994–1997 and 2002-2007. In 2003 he succeeded P ...

, who sought a return to politics after having lost his seat at the 1997 election. He pledged that, if the party formed the next government, it would give ten percent of the national budget to churches to assist young people, stating that "PNG proclaimed itself to be a Christian country but the Government had not made that a reality." He also pledged to fight corruption and to investigate a number of past financial deals involving the national government. The party won four seats at the 2002 election: Yama (Usino-Bundi Open), Yuntavi Bao (Kainantu Open), Miki Kaeok (Wapenamanda Open) and Ekis Ropenu (Kerema Open). It supported

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 ...

for Prime Minister and was to be allocated one ministry in his government, but Yama stated that he would step aside due to a misconduct investigation. Three more MPs were reported to have joined the party in December 2002: Cecilking Doruba (sole MP for the PNG First Party), Gordon Wesley (sole MP for the One People Party) and independent Fabian Ine, although they faced issues with anti-floor crossing laws. The misconduct proceedings against Yama were quashed in March 2003. The party won an additional seat at the Southern Highlands supplementary election in May 2003, with the election of

Balus Libe Balus may refer to: * Balus, Iran * Balus River, in Romania *Alexander Balus ''Alexander Balus'' ( HWV 65) is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel, named after its title character, the Seleucid king Alexander Balas. The work has three acts and wa ...

in Komo-Magarina Open. Yama claimed at that time that with further defections the party had a total of 10 MPs Yama was promoted to the ministry in August 2003 as Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations, but was sacked in November. Bao also served as a minister in Somare's government, but was himself sacked in January 2004 after the party voted against an attempted constitutional amendment to curb no-confidence votes. Following their sacking, the party moved to the opposition and attempted to oust the Somare government. In May 2004, Yama was briefly recognised as Leader of the Opposition when Speaker

Jeffrey Nape Jeffery Nape (1964 – 8 July 2016) was, until the 2012 election, speaker of the National Parliament and twice officially and once unofficially acting governor-general of Papua New Guinea. He was elected speaker by the members of the parliament ...

attempted to prevent

Peter O'Neill Peter Charles Paire O'Neill (born 13 February 1965) is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019. From 2002 until the present he served as Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pan ...

from taking the office. However, in July, the party announced that Repenu had replaced Yama as leader, and that the party would again support the government. The party again reversed later in the term, with Yama regaining the leadership and the party pledging to strongly oppose the re-election of the Somare government by the time of the 2007 election. The party won two seats at the 2007 election:

Patrick Kondo Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name *Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...

in Daulo Open and

Koni Iguan Koni Iguan (born 6 June 1969) is a Papua New Guinea politician. He has been a Pangu Party member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since 2017, representing the Markham Open electorate. He formerly held the same seat from 2007 to 201 ...

in Markham Open, while Yama was defeated in a bid for Governor of

Madang Province Madang is a province of Papua New Guinea. The province is on the northern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea and has many of the country's highest peaks, active volcanoes and its biggest mix of languages. The capital is the town of Madang. ...

. Iguan succeeded Yama as party leader. However, Iguan crossed to the

Papua New Guinea Party The Papua New Guinea Party is a political party in Papua New Guinea. It was founded in 2007 by former Prime Minister and Leader of the People's Democratic Movement, Mekere Morauta, along with MP Wake Goi. The party won 8 out of 109 seats in the ...

in January 2011. Yama attempted to re-enter parliament at the 2012 election but was unsuccessful, and was again defeated in a 2013 by-election. The party was registered to contest the 2017 election, and won two seats in the National Parliament. As of May 2019, the party has 1 seat in the National Parliament.

References

{{Papua New Guinean political parties Labour parties Political parties in Papua New Guinea 2001 establishments in Papua New Guinea Political parties established in 2001