The Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has ruled the election of Peter O'Neill unconstitutional and restored the former Sir Michael Somare as Prime minister in a narrow 3-2 decision.
The court found that there was no vacancy in the office of prime minister on August 2, following a parliamentary vote of 70 to 24 that saw Mr O'Neill elected, rendering the decision illegal.
"Sir Michael Somare is to be restored to the office of prime minister forthwith," the court said.
At the outset of judgments being read, Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia indicated contempt charges will be brought against Mr O'Neill and his lawyer Philip Ame.
Mr Ame filed a last minute attempt to dismiss Sir Salamo on Friday, citing three affidavits by men who claim to have seen the Chief Justice during a late night rendezvous with the son of former prime minister Sir Michael Somare.
The government on Monday passed laws to legalise its dumping of Somare and his government that occurred on August 2.
Supporters of Sir Michael launched the constitutional challenge immediately after Mr O'Neill's August 2 election, when MPs voted 70 to 24 to dump Sir Michael and replace him with Mr O'Neill.
Sir Michael's supporters argue there was no vacancy in the prime ministership despite a four-month absence by the 76-year-old political veteran, who had been recovering from heart surgery in Singapore.
Sir Michael lost his seat in September for missing three sessions of parliament while he was in Singapore, but that was challenged in the courts by Sir Michael's supporters, who say he only missed two sessions without leave and was granted permission to miss a May session.
That challenge was rolled into the main constitutional case.
Immediately after the Supreme Court's decision was announced on Monday, there were armed guards outside Government House and there were rumours that an attempt would be made to reinstate Mr O'Neill.
The press were refused entry to Government House by the armed guards ahead of Sir Michael's expected swearing in as prime minister.
The political situation was unclear because the government of Peter O'Neill on Monday afternoon passed retrospective laws legalising its decision to unseat Sir Michael as PM and dump him from the East Sepik electorate he has held for 43 years.
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