{"id":671832,"date":"2022-05-25T22:44:56","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T22:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=74607"},"modified":"2022-05-25T22:44:56","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T22:44:56","slug":"png-elections-peoples-national-congress-party-endorses-90-plus-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/05\/25\/png-elections-peoples-national-congress-party-endorses-90-plus-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"PNG elections: Peoples\u2019 National Congress party endorses 90 plus candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Don Wiseman<\/a>, RNZ Pacific<\/a> journalist<\/em><\/p>\n Papua New Guinea’s Peoples’ National Congress is shaping up as the party to watch as the country’s general election approaches.<\/p>\n Nominations are set to finish later today with campaigning then in earnest through to early July when voting starts.<\/p>\n The Peoples’ National Congress (PNC) is led by Peter O’Neill who lost the prime ministership to James Marape in 2019.<\/p>\n The party, of which Marape was also once a member, had dominated PNG politics for the previous eight years.<\/p>\n RNZ Pacific’s PNG correspondent Scott Waide said the PNC had endorsed more than 90 candidates which has created a force to reckon with.<\/p>\n “Ninety candidates all over the country means that there is a higher possibility of PNC banking on its chances to get the members into parliament,” he said.<\/p>\n “PANGU has also put out a list of candidates. Surprisingly a lot of women in the PANGU group – at least five I think.”<\/p>\n Waide said the party of the late deputy prime minister, Sam Basil, the United Labour Party (ULP) is also shaping up to do well in this poll.<\/p>\n The PNG Parliament is larger than before, with the addition of seven new seats taking it to 118 members.<\/p>\n\n