General elections were held in Papua New Guinea from 23 June until around 13 July 2012,[1] after being postponed by a further week to allow for security personnel to crisscross the country, particularly the highland provinces.

[2][3] The elections followed controversy over incomplete electoral rolls and a constitutional crisis caused by a dispute over the office of prime minister between Michael Somare and Peter O'Neill.

There was a suggestion by the parliament to postpone the election for up to a year in the light of an unprepared process in regards to the implementation of a biometric voting system and an only 60% complete voter roll.

Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah was a proponent of this idea saying the election commission and the census had failed in the count of the population.

The Parliamentary motion instructed head of the election commission, Andrew Trawen, to ask the Governor-General of Papua New Guinea Sir Michael Ogio for the delay.

"[6] However, after intense domestic and international pressure, O'Neill backed away from this demand and the election was held from 23 June to about 13 July which was in the scheduled timeslot.

[10] O'Neill, who originally had no party base, formed an alliance in March with Belden Namah, former Prime Ministers Sir Mekere Morauta and Bill Skate to contest the election.

The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) cited payments to tribal, clan and village extended family heads in order to get "block votes", particularly in the seven highland provinces where 45 of 111 MPs are chosen.

This was in contrast to the previous Moka system that involved high-profile individuals who gained both prestige and power in exchange for gifts such as pigs, shells and yams to each other in order to entangle others in a web of unrepayable debt, according to the SMH.

[14] Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia, one of the three judges who ruled that Somare was the legitimate prime minister was arrested in May and later charged with sedition.

[17] Three sets of observation teams monitored the election: The electoral process delayed the release of a report into the sinking of the MV Rabaul Queen.

A Commission of Inquiry had been set up and led by Warwick Andrew, who submitted the final report to caretaker Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.

Paul Barker, the executive director of the Institute of National Affairs, said that it was common to see errors in the electoral rolls and that "it was wide scale in the 2007 poll, but it seems worse now.

He said that the "options were Port Moresby and Mount Hagen but it was considered that the people of Hela province need to embrace the elections and take responsibility for their own destiny."

Paul Ogil, the cousin of former Foreign Secretary Gabriel Pepson, who is working with his campaign, said: "Any postponement of polling is a burden to them (candidates) because they have to keep disbursing money (such as meals, a place to sleep and fares home for those visiting the "campaign house" of candidates, as well as supporting a fleet of about 10 cars with each vehicle and its crew costing about 500 kina a day in fuel, food, and buai).

According to the election observer Transparency International's Operations Manager Jerry Bagita, the process in other coastal and island provinces went off peacefully.

[22][23] On 4 July 2012, The National reported that four people, including an election official had been charged with tampering with ballot boxes and papers in the Dei electorate of the Western Highlands.

[25] Additionally, in Kandep, Enga province, on 7 July a GEC officer was stabbed to death, while a colleague was injured in a bush-knife at a vote counting centre in Wabag allegedly as revenge for another murder.

"[26] Parliamentary Speaker Jeffrey Nape was arrested following a charge of attempting to bribe a candidate and of undue influence in his home province of Simbu, according to provincial police commander Augustine Wampe.

[13] Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was announced as the winner of his contest in the Ialiba-Panga electorate in the Southern Highlands Province with 44,917 (75%) of the votes.