Peter O'Neill re-elected by parliament after chaotic election

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has been re-elected after securing sufficient minor party and independent support.

Papua New Guinea's parliament has re-elected Peter O'Neill as prime minister, ending a chaotic election campaign marred by violence.

While O'Neill's ruling People's National Congress party was unable to win enough seats to form a government outright in elections last month, in which counting continues, he secured enough minor party and independent support to be re-elected prime minister on Wednesday.

He has held the job since 2011.

O'Neil was declared the winner by newly-elected Speaker Job Pomat after securing 60 votes.

O'Neill's re-election marks a rare period of political stability in the resource-rich South Pacific nation that has had four leaders in six years.
But with the election tainted by poor organisation and opposition accusations of electoral roll irregularities, voter frustration, already high, looms over O'Neill's tenure.

"Emotions are running high and there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the way that O'Neill managed his first term. I think at some point that emotion will boil over," said Jonathan Pryke, a research fellow at Australian think-tank the Lowy Institute.

O'Neill's government has promised to improve education and health care but his fiscal gamble in his previous term limits his ability to meet those commitments, analysts said.
O'Neill's government borrowed heavily in the expectation Exxon Mobil's $US20 billion ($A25 billion) LNG plant would unleash a new wave of economic prosperity but a slide in energy prices saw the 2016 budget deficit balloon to 34 per cent of GDP, more than double what it was in 2012.

"The economy is a mess. The numbers from treasury show anaemic growth but in reality when you look at the data, the country is in recession," said a former government economic advisor speaking on condition for anonymity.

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Source: AAP



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