Launch of Election 2007: The Shift to Limited Preferential Voting in Papua New Guinea
15 September 2011
Introductory Remarks by Dr. Thomas Webster

A comprehensive study on the national elections has been produced after every election since Independence, except for 2002, produced jointly by academics from overseas and in PNG under the auspices of the University of PNG, the National Research Institute and off course the Australian National University through individuals like Ron May who has been involved in all the studies.

In the past elections, the academics used to organize themselves in rather ad‐hoc manner to select an electorate observe the activities and put together a collection of papers on different themes. It would also include information on the election outcomes, such as how many candidates, votes cast and the
winning margins.

In the 2007 General Elections however, the Government through IDEC, the Interdepartmental Committee on the conduct of elections engaged the National Research Institute to coordinate a
Domestic Observer team. Academics from different institutions in PNG and abroad especially the ANU worked together to observe and provide feedback on the conduct and management of the 2007 General Elections.

This book complements and adds to the information captured from the 2007 national elections. It complements namely two significant reports put together by the National Research Institute.
A Domestic Observer Report was presented to the Government of PNG, through IDEC, in early 2008.

A second report titled, Priorities for a Free and Fair Election: An NRI Issues Analysis. A publication intended to be a discussion paper for broader community engagement in discussions teasing out main issues from the Domestic Observer Report for addressing at the next general elections.

This book adds to the volume of work on the 2007 elections as well but provides more in‐depth discussions, anecdotes, personal stories and observations.

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