The Papua New Guinea government has asked the Constitutional Law Reform Commission to table several electoral reforms in time for the November session of parliament.
PNG PM Peter O'Neill Photo: AFP / Peter Parks
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, who is responsible for constitutional matters, said PNG needs to improve a lot of the electoral process.
He said potential reforms included shortening the election period to save time and resources.
Mr O'Neill said the Commission also needs to look at the Limited Preferential Voting system, or LPV, and determine whether it has delivered the outcomes the country wanted, such as reducing violence.
But he said it was fair to say that under LPV and the previous system, First Past The Post, there have been violent disturbances.
But the Post Courier reported Mr O'Neill saying these are law and order problems which require an increase in the presence of security.
He said his governmment's recommendation was to consider a return to First Past The Post.
The prime minister said Australia had LPV but it was developed and has a matured economy which was not the case for PNG.
He asked whether PNG needed a simple system where the counting process and the electoral results emerge more quickly.
