John Momis (born 3 March 1942) is a Bougainvillean politician who served as the President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea between 2010 and 2020.
[1] He was a co-writer of the Constitution of Papua New Guinea and worked to establish a secessionist organization in what was then North Solomons Province.
[2] Momis defeated his predecessor James Tanis and five other challengers by a landslide in the 2010 presidential election, in which he was a candidate of the New Bougainville Party.
Momis attended Buin Primary School in Bougainville and St. Brendan's College, located in Yeppoon, Queensland, Australia.
Shortly before independence, Momis resigned his seat in the PNG parliament to establish a secessionist organization in North Solomons (Bougainville).
[6] However, Momis quickly returned to national Papuan politics after North Solomons was established as a province with a provincial government within Papua New Guinea.
In March 1980, Momis had joined with other members of parliament from North Solomons (Bougainville) to support a successful vote of no confidence in Michael Somare.
[1] In 2010, Momis resigned his post as Papua New Guinea's ambassador to the People's Republic of China to contest the 2010 presidential election.
[9] On Tuesday 8 June 2010 at 2:30 p.m. John Momis was declared the winner and president-elect of Bougainville in a landslide victory over President James Tanis and the other presidential candidates.
[4] Momis stated that his first priorities in office were to fight political corruption and to arrange disposal of the large number of weapons and unexploded ordnance left over from Bougainville's long war.