The People's Labour Party is a

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

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

History

It was founded in April 2001 by Madang businessman and former MP Peter Yama, 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 – 25 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 ...

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 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 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. He has been a Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pangia since 2002. He was a fo ...

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 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 The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the Unicameralism, unicameral national legislature in ...

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

Madang Province Madang is a Provinces of Papua New Guinea, 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 capi ...

. Iguan succeeded Yama as party leader. However, Iguan crossed to the Papua New Guinea Party 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