A newly-re-elected member of Papua New Guinea's parliament has
described the limited preferential voting system as the best way to
elect law-makers.
Dr Puka Temu was re-elected in a
by-election in the Abau electorate under limited-preferential
rules.
Firmin Nanol reports from Port Moresby.
A national court this year declared his election in 2002 null and void over allegations of undue influence and bribery, but won in a by-election earlier this month. Dr Temu said PNG needs to be proud of the successful results of the first Limited preferential voting in the peaceful Abau bye-election. He says PNG can learn from the mistakes and conduct successful by-elections in 7 of the country's 109 parliamentary seats still vacant and in the 2007 national elections. He polled over 9000 votes from a field of 6 candidates and will be sworn in early next year.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.