6 Sep 2013

PNG's National Alliance wins Angoram by-election

2:59 pm on 6 September 2013

Papua New Guinea's former ruling party, the National Alliance, has bolstered its numbers in parliament after its candidate, Salio Waipo, won the Angoram by-election.

The Angoram seat was vacated in March when the veteran politician Ludwig Schulze passed away.

Mr Waipo's win brings the total number of National Alliance MPs in PNG's 111-seat parliament to ten.

The National Alliance is part of the coalition government which is led by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's People's National Congress party and enjoys an overwhelming majority in the parliament.

The Angoram by-election was held concurrently with recent Local Level Government elections across PNG.

Meanwhile, EMTV reports that the Electoral Commissioner Andrew Ttrawen has suggested that the general and LLG elections could be conducted concurrently in future.

He says the Commission is reviewing the recent elections and recommendations will be made to the National Executive Council.