13 Dec 2011

Prediction PNG's restored Somare government will be stalled by Budget failure

11:44 am on 13 December 2011

The Peter O'Neill faction in the Papua New Guinea parliament says passing a budget will be the critical test for the restored Sir Michael Somare government.

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled that Mr O Neill's parliamentary election on August the 2nd was unconstitutional and it restored Sir Michael to the prime ministership.

A member of Mr O'Neill's former cabinet, Bart Philemon, says they remain confident of their numbers compared with Sir Michael, who he says, has the backing of less than 20 of the 109 MPs.

He says he expects one of the first actions of the Somare government will be to try and pass a budget and they won't have the numbers.

"He needs the numbers therefore to pursue the passing, the passage and passing of that Budget. And we could lock the Budget, forcing the country into a Supply Bill for 3 months and then after the end of 3 months then we could, if we still had the numbers, we could dictate as to whether he has the numbers to govern for the next few months before the election or not."