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an exam in which only the top three would be endorsed as candidates for a seat. This
would provide for preliminary screening mechanisms in order to prevent the not so
serious, unqualified, inexperienced and mediocre leaders gnawing away vital votes for
better candidates. This would further ensure that the member elect is someone from
among the best, and not a mediocre.
Quite similarly I suggested to the voters that the electoral commission might as well
devise a method that mandates the LLG together with their respective communities to
proceed with a series of preliminary local elections through forums, for instance by show
of hands, in order to eliminate the unpopular candidates while establishing the remaining
4-8 most popular candidates. As per the consensus of the communities and/or wards, only
the remaining 4-8 candidates of any electorate shall be allowed to officially contest in the
election. It is necessary that no less than four remaining popular candidates contest in an
election. This would ensure that the proposed type of LPV, which is free of exhausted
votes, could by all statistic probabilities establish a winner. As all the votes for every
candidate will be counted, it might be futile to advance only three candidates in an
election.
Voters are voting well enough but either the array of choices is poor and limiting or, the
corrupted are still getting away with the lure of cash and trade store goods.
The only reservation for such a proposal is that it might only invite the few filthy rich and
unscrupulous candidates back into the scene, once again using cash and goods as lures to
buy ‘instant popularity’ as opposed to ‘sincere popularity’. The latter is long term and is
usually determined by the integrity of the candidate’s character and professional
credibility than just cash and goods.
A Cultural Rationale
My discussion of election in PNG began in a major way by drawing from thoughts and
observations of other scholars that premised their arguments on history and traditions
being the principal factors in bringing about change on cultural behavior (Marx
1970[1859], Keesing & Tonkinson 1982, Hobsbawm 1983, Damon 2003, and Keesing &
Strathern 2004).
The case of Kiriwina-Goodenough electorate in 2007 evinced a similar inclination
towards traditional practices and cultural environment as the main points of explanation
in the way voters perceived the purposes of electoral processes. Though seemingly a
recent phenomenon however, voters are bound to justify all their expectations and actions
on the basis of ‘what they are normally used to’ – a cultural praxis.
For the Kiriwina voters, it is within the realm of their own reasoning that a novel state
sanctioned electoral process should be subjected to normal customary practices. As a
horticultural society, individuals are expected to share their wealth, and likewise the
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