Despite Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's efforts to douse claims that MPs seeking a delay of the poll were plotting against him, conspiracy theories electrified city-dwelling citizens anxious to use their votes to end the crippling political impasse of the past nine months. (How far such concerns resonate out in the landscape of the rural majority, where many long ago gave up on services or governance, is another story.)
As MPs gathered for the showdown on Tuesday, beefed-up security and the mysterious absence of the Speaker, Jeffrey Nape, fanned suspicion that something was up. For almost two hours the burgeoning online gallery of PNG's switched-on citizenry tweeted, posted and sweated on his non-appearance.
Exploding social media has emerged as a potent force in PNG's recent crisis, informing and recruiting grassroots networks and mobilising huge street protests last month.
Now it demanded to know whether the reviled Nape - whose autocratic and erratic style has long stirred controversy - was holed up somewhere cutting a deal. Or might he have been swept up by Task Force Sweep, the anti-corruption agency that had drawn a warrant for his arrest over allegations about missing development funds? (He has been quoted denying ever getting the money.)
According to the Post-Courier the next day, the Speaker had indeed been hoping to muster numbers to delay the poll even as the bells were ringing. He took his seat after the Prime Minister and others confronted him.
''In a rare show of unity, MPs on both sides of the House put their differences aside and unanimously agreed that the writs must be issued on Friday for the polls to be held now,'' the paper reported. Parliament was dissolved.
''Despite the political challenges and the constant uncertainty PNG has done it! We're going to elections,'' tweeted ''Tavurvur'', one of PNG's leading (albeit anonymous) political bloggers. Relief swept the digital airwaves. ''That's sweet news.'' ''Thank God, now we can move forward.''
Papua New Guineans cherish their young democracy, though its exercise is a logistical nightmare: a nation of 800 tongues, mountains, islands, forests and swamps connected by few roads and broken bridges; relying on dodgy voter rolls and fielding candidates with few qualms about doing whatever it takes.
Polling takes two weeks - weather permitting - because of the difficulties in moving ballot boxes. In the chaotic 2002 poll, when dozens were killed, a container of ballots was blown up in the highlands.
Nonetheless the people love an election. Voter turnout is always high, says PNG analyst Dr Nicole Haley of the Australian National University. For some the excitement is about empowering better leaders; for others it's the windfall of cash splashed about by candidates buying votes. A World Bank study calculated that voters reaped an average 1300 kina ($A620) each in the 2007 campaign, some pocketing more than 3000 kina from the culture of money politics that thrives in the absence of platforms founded on policy, performance and party integrity.
''There's a madness that takes over in PNG during elections,'' says veteran political observer Dr Bill Standish, also of ANU. ''It becomes the absolute obsession right across the country.''
Adding to the complexities is the sheer number of parties - 46 to date, and more than 4300 candidates.
Posters identifying each candidate with a number, name, photo and party must be displayed at polling booths. Confirming endorsements and getting the posters right takes weeks, Standish says.
Anticipation around election 2012 is super-charged as a consequence of the wild ride since the Supreme Court ruling in December that the removal of Sir Michael Somare as PM back in August - and the ascension of Peter O'Neill - was illegal, unleashing a dangerous power struggle.
But ''there is a longer history here, going back to the Somare government, and a deterioration of institutions and processes for some time,'' says Dr Henry Okole, a political expert with PNG's National Research Institute. Years of festering dissatisfaction fed a ''sense of inevitability … a change of government had to happen'', Okole says, but initial enthusiasm for the O'Neill-led coalition soured in the maelstrom.
With the writs now issued, Okole is confident that the election will go ahead, though murmurs endure that acute landowner tensions around the $US15 billion Exxon-led liquid natural gas (PNG LNG) project still have the potential to delay the poll if they trigger a state of emergency.
In a paper to a recent Deakin University forum, Nicole Haley warned that the 2012 ballot would be violent, especially in LNG country, and ''marred by fraud and malpractice on a scale never before seen''.
She cited evidence of armed militias set up by powerful candidates and highlighted tensions within the PNG Defence Force as a consequence of a short-lived mutiny in January encouraged by the Somare camp. The flashpoint has left the military deeply divided - ''a real cause for concern. Expect the security personnel to be partisan and politicised and less effective than 2007, and expect the government that is elected to have little credibility.''
While Henry Okole shares concerns about security and process, he's encouraged by the notion that recent events have encouraged a new dawn of political engagement in PNG. ''People have gone in depth into the constitution and issues such as the separation of powers, and the central place it occupies in society. More people - perhaps caught previously in a state of indifference and inertia - are now coming to realise the importance of good, effective and visionary leadership.''
That sentiment is explicit in newspaper letters and social media. The chairman of Task Force Sweep, Sam Koim, posted a passionate appeal on Facebook this week highlighting his findings. Sweep had just reported to government that the taskforce had exposed a ''frightening'' culture of ingrained corruption, identifying powerful networks plundering the nation's riches. They had ''turned our constitutional democracy into a 'mobocracy' and kleptocracy.
''Many of these corrupt people are now using the proceeds … to enter the elections,'' Koim posted. ''I encourage you to avoid these people … see beyond the borders of your affiliations and choose this day a good person in your electorate. God Bless Papua New Guinea.''
Okole is hopeful this ''higher level of consciousness about Parliament and process'' will empower the next government to tackle critical political and constitutional reforms.
He points to events in the Parliament on Tuesday ''as something to look back on as a guide to the future''. Instead of the anticipated political ''bomb'', members reflected on the challenges ahead and recognised a couple of retiring towering figures of PNG politics - former PM and reformer, Sir Mekere Morauta, and opposition leader and community campaigner Dame Carol Kidu.
''For the way it ended they deserve to be congratulated. But it was a close call - as always in PNG.''
Jo Chandler
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