PETER O’Neill will return as Prime Minister to serve his first full term as Papua New Guinea’s head of Government after the general election, according to a public opinion poll.
This is among other interesting election predictions based on the results of a nationwide public opinion poll conducted between the last quarter of 2011 and first quarter of 2012 by PNG’s only public opinion poll company, Mell Research & Marketing Consultants owned by Michael Mell.
“Our public opinion poll strongly predicts that the O’Neill-Namah Government will return to power after the national election,” Mr Mell told the Post-Courier yesterday (see advert on page 20 for details).
“Our poll further predicts that Mr O’Neill’s People’s National Congress party will muster the numbers required to return him as Prime Minister and his deputy Belden Namah’s PNG Party will also muster the numbers to again make him Deputy Prime Minister,” he said.
Mr Mell said the only major threat to the current coalition Government returning to office is if “there is an open fight” between Mr O’Neill and Mr Namah over who should become Prime Minister.
“If the O’Neill-Namah partnership remains as strong as it has been in the last 10 months during the remainder of the campaign and polling periods and up to the formation of Government, the public can be rest assured that the current coalition Government will return,” he said.
“Our poll predicts that both Mr O’Neill’s People’s National Congress and Mr Namah’s PNG Party will win the most seats, followed by their coalition partners, (Don Polye’s) THE Party and (William Duma’s) United Resources Party,” Mr Mell said. He also said “a little over 50 per cent” of sitting MPs will retain their seats.
On Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, Mr Mel said: “If the Chief was a young man and was contending for the Prime Minister’s post, the recent political impasse would have a large impact on his election to propel him back into Government.
“But this is not going to happen and even the newly-appointed National Alliance leader (Patrick Pruaitch) will be nowhere near to becoming a prime ministerial candidate.
“The political impasse has been the result of Somare’s indecisiveness as to who among his sons would replace him as National Alliance leader and subsequently become Prime Minister.
“The Grand Chief and his NA party executive have failed miserably to perform the most important strategic political move to ensure a smooth transition of leadership and this will hurt them during the polls and formation of the new Government.”
BOC Price at posting:
67.5¢ Sentiment: ST Buy Disclosure: Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)