The People's Progress Party is a political party in

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 ...

. 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 independence in 1975, Chan served, while party leader, as

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

from 1980 to 1982 and 1994 to 1997. Chan’s second Government was brought down by the Sandline Affair and the party suffered in the elections that year. Chan and acting Prime Minister John Giheno lost their seats, and Michael Nali became the party’s leader in Parliament. When Chan was not serving as Prime Minister, the party was often a junior partner in a coalition with the Pangu Party. At the 2002 General Elections, the party won 8 seats, becoming the third largest party. At the 2007 General Election the party lost half of its seats. However, the party’s original leader, Julius Chan, returned to Parliament, and took over the party’s leadership. Chan ran as the opposition candidate for Prime Minister, but received the support of only 21 of the 109 members of Parliament. The party had 5 members in the 111-seat

National Parliament of Papua New Guinea The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the Unicameralism, unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea but gained its current name after the nation was grante ...

as of September 2019 and was part of the governing coalition of Prime Minister

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 ...

Current party leaders

* Theodore Zurenuoc - Member for

Finschhafen Open Finschhafen is a town east of Lae on the Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. The town is commonly misspelt as Finschafen or Finschaven. During World War II, the town was also referred to as Fitch Haven in the logs of some U.S ...

Former party leaders

* Michael Nali: Led the party while Chan was out of Parliament. He held various ministerial positions, including Deputy Prime Minister. He switched from his Mendi Open seat to contest the Southern Highlands Provincial electorate in the 2007 Elections but did not win. *Dr Allan Marat: 2003–2004 - Minister of Trade. Left the party and joined the Melanesian Liberal Party. * Andrew Baing: 2004–2006 - Minister of Fisheries. Dismissed from Parliament for wrong conduct. * Sir Julius Chan - Member for New Ireland Provincial

External links

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References

{{Papua New Guinean political parties Political parties in Papua New Guinea 1969 establishments in Papua New Guinea Political parties established in 1969 *Main