O’Neill may return as prime minister

 By NEVILLE TOGAREWA

NATIONAL pollster Mell Research and Marketing Ltd (MRML) says the O’Neill-Namah Government’s free education policy is a vote winner and predicts it will bring the current regime back into office after the 2012 pollSs.
MRML managing director Michael Mell has also announced their poll results indicate that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s People’s National Congress Party (PNC) will win the most number of seats and he stands a good chance of winning the top post to serve his first full five-year term as Prime Minister.
The company boss also predicts that Mr O’Neill’s three major coalition partners - his deputy Belden Namah’s PNG Party, Don Polye’s THE Party and William Duma’s United Resources Party - will also perform very well at the polls.
Mr Mell revealed his latest nationwide poll findings to the Post Courier yesterday, just 24 hours before Papua New Guinea’s 4.8 million voters begin to flock to a total 9, 800 polling locations throughout the country to cast their votes starting tomorrow, Saturday June 23.
“PNC will win the 2012 national election and the Governor General will call on the party to form the next Government with Peter O’Neill tipped to retain the Prime Minister post,” he said.
Mr Mell said the predictions are based on a nationwide opinion poll conducted in all the 111 parliament seats.
“The results are showing that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s PNC will win over 30 seats, ahead of all the other (45) political parties contesting the election. The results are also indicating that THE Party, PNG Party and URP will also perform very well,” he said.
“This means that the current O’Neill-Namah coalition Government will collectively win the 2012 election. Their free education policy will bring them back into office in this election,” Mr Mell said.
Under the Organic Law on Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates, the party that wins the highest number of seats will be called upon to form the Government.
In the last seven general elections since the first one was held in 1977, no single party has ever won a clear majority to form a one-party government and it will be the same in this election.
It is therefore important that party leaders explore their options on which parties they will align themselves with for possible political marriages in order to cement their positions ahead of the “numbers game” to form the next Government in August.
Mr Mell will publish his nationwide poll results in the Post-Courier on Monday or Tuesday next week.