At Stake in this Election:        

• 118 seats in the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea  

Government Structure: 

• Chief of State: Queen ELIZABETH II* 

• Head of Government: Prime Minister James MARAPE 

• Assembly: Unicameral National Parliament with 111 seats 

*Queen Elizabeth II is represented by Governor-General Bob DADAE 

Electoral System: 

• The National Parliament currently has 111 single-member constituencies, 22 of which are provincial and 89 of which are local. After 2022, this number will increase to 118 single-member constituencies with 96 local districts. The country uses a limited preferential voting system, where voters rank their top three candidates. If one candidate does not reach an absolute majority, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and counting is continued until one candidate has at least 50% of the vote. Parliament members are elected to five-year terms.  

• The Prime Minister is congruous to the leader of the party or coalition with the majority in the Parliament.  

• The Governor-General is appointed by the monarch after a nomination vote by Parliament.  

Main Candidates in this Election:  

• People’s National Congress Party (PNC) 

• Leader: Peter O’NEILL 

• Seats won in last election: 27 

• National Alliance Party (NAP) 

• Leader: Patrick PRUAITCH 

• Seats won in last election: 14 

• Pangu Pati (PP) 

• Leader: James MARAPE 

• Seats won in last election: 11 

• United Resources Party (URP) 

• Leader: William DUMA 

• Seats won in last election: 9 

• Papua New Guinea Party (PNG Party) 

• Leader: Belden NAMAH 

• Seats won in last election: 6 

• People’s Progress Party (PPP) 

• Leader: Julius CHAN 

• Seats won in last election: 5 

Population and Registered Voters: 

• Population: 9,593,498 (2022 est.)¹ 

• Registered Voters: Roughly 5.6 million  

Gender Data:

• Female Population: 3,564,298 (2022 est.)² 

• Is Papua New Guinea a signatory to CEDAW: No 

• Has Papua New Guinea ratified CEDAW: Yes (Accession), 12 Jan 1995³ 

• Gender Quota: None 

• Female Candidates in this election: 142 out of 3,499⁴ 

• Number of Female Legislators: 0 

• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: Rank 155 at 0.555 (2019)⁵ 

• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A 

Disability Data: 

• Is Papua New Guinea a signatory to CRPD: Yes, 02 Jun 2011⁶ 

• Has Papua New Guinea ratified CRPD:  Yes, 26 Sep 2013⁷ 

• Population with a disability: 1,000,862 (2022 est.)⁸ 

 

1. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/papua-new-guinea/#people-and-society 

2.  https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/papua-new-guinea/#people-and-society 

3.  https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?Treaty=CEDAW&Lang=en

4. https://asiapacificreport.nz/2022/06/19/png-elections-female-candidates-try-to-prove-parliament-isnt-just-for-men/

5. https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/specific-country-data#/countries/PNG 

6. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?Treaty=CEDAW&Lang=en

7. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?Treaty=CEDAW&Lang=en

8. http://electionaccess.org/en/resources/countries/?q=papua+new+guinea#tab