PNG Parliament elects new prime minister

Papua New Guinea's Parliament has elected James Marape as new prime minister after outgoing leader Peter O'Neill resigned following weeks of political turmoil sparked by natural resources deals.

Marape, who quit as finance minister in April over a gas deal with France's Total he called too generous to the oil major, was the front-runner sources said ahead of the vote.

Political instability is not unusual in the poverty-stricken but resource-rich country, but Marape's defection from the government earlier tapped into growing concern over governance and resource benefits not reaching the poor.

Those concerns ultimately led to O’Neill’s official resignation on Wednesday.

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Marape and his allies have indicated that April's agreement, which allows Total, Oil Search and ExxonMobil to begin work on a $US13 billion ($19 billion) plan to double gas exports, could be reviewed.

"Agreements and resources laws will be relooked at as a matter of priority," Philip Undialu, a lawmaker aligned with Marape, told Reuters by text from the Grand Papua Hotel where his supporters are based.

"It's going to be a fair deal not necessarily radical," he said.

Undialu said he believed Marape could command the backing of 79 members of Parliament, a clear majority. Counting was still under way.

Marape told Papua New Guinea's National newspaper two weeks ago, in reference to the April deal, that "something is wrong somewhere when the government is not unlocking … resources for our people".

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"We have a government that wants to save the interests of corporate giants," he said.

Opposition leader Patrick Pruaitch was another possible replacement and, in a Parliament with few ideological divides, any number of other contenders could have emerged.

More to come

Reuters 

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