PNG LNG player defeated

One of the prominent figures in Papua New Guinea's recent political drama will now have to watch from the sidelines after losing his seat in the general election. Arthur Somare lost his bid for a fourth consecutive term in parliament. He was the minister for state enterprises before his father Sir Michael Somare was turfed out of the prime minister's office by Peter O'Neill in August last year. While Sir Michael was laid low by poor health, his son argued long and loud that his ouster was unconstitutional. Despite now losing his seat, Mr Somare says he is not disappointed. "I can pursue a private life now. I've been in the public eye for an extended period of time and copped quite a lot of flack," he said. Sir Michael is on track to retain his seat though he has indicated he will soon be retiring from politics. The son of Grand Chief Sir Michael fell short with 10,624 votes after preferences compared to 11,800 for Pangu Pati candidate Ludwig Schulze – who lost this seat to Arthur in 1997. While he had no shortage of critics, one of Arthur’s key achievements was to secure a financing package for the PNG government’s 19.6% share of development costs for the PNG LNG project while he was public enterprises minister. He secured these arrangements during a difficult global lending climate after the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 and back when this project’s capital expenditure estimate was $US15 billion (revised capex is $15.7 billion). One of his associates told PNGIndustryNews.net that in many ways, Arthur was a victim of the LNG project. “He had to devote so much time and energy to getting it over the line he ended up neglecting his constituency,” the source said. Arthur Somare also played a significant role in the legal challenges against the formation and decisions of the O’Neill-Namah coalition government last year. In another blow to the National Alliance party, East Sepik Governor Peter Wararu Waranaka lost his seat to independent candidate and former National Development Bank managing director Richard Maru. Wararu was a key architect of the Supreme Court challenge against the O’Neill-Namah government last year. Meanwhile, NA party leader Sir Michael Somare is on track to win his East Sepik provincial government seat yet again.