Ilya Gridneff
PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea’s political future now rests in the very court that sparked a week of unprecedented crisis.
The country is divided, with rival camps of Peter O’Neill and Sir Michael Somare still both claiming their man was prime minister presiding over a legitimate government.
Peter O’Neill has a groundswell of popular support and 74 MPs backing him and his government.
But Sir Michael, 75, known as the ‘‘father of the nation’’, is relying on last Monday’s 3-2 Supreme Court ruling reinstating him as prime minister on the grounds that Mr O’Neill’s August 2 ascension was unconstitutional.
The ruling launched a dramatic five-day political tussle in which Mr O’Neill suspended the Governor-General, Michael Ogio, and elevated the Speaker, Jeffrey Nape, to the role to swear him in as prime minister.
The O’Neill government also made retrospective legislative changes at Monday’s sitting of Parliament that disqualified Sir Michael from sitting as a member.
Meanwhile, Sir Michael and 20 ministers have maintained they are still PNG’s government and have occupied government buildings.
The unprecedented crisis even prompted calls for the Queen to decide which of the two governorsgeneral was the real head of state.
This latest attempt to seize power involves Mr O’Neill using the ‘‘slip rule’’ option, which allows Supreme Court rulings to be revisited in ‘‘exceptional cases’’.
“It was filed on Thursday and we will be in court on Monday to discuss potentially a seven-man bench rather than the previous five-man bench,” an adviser to Mr O’Neill said.
Mr O’Neill is also applying for a restraining order to prevent Sir Michael performing government duties.
“It’s still a stalemate, PNG has double everything, but hopefully the courts can read the public mood,” he said.
Power has all but slipped from Sir Michael, who failed in a desperate early morning bid on Friday to recruit the Defence Force after his choice for police commissioner, Fred Yakasa, could not provide the muscle needed to break the deadlock with Mr O’Neill.
By Friday night, the week-long standoff appeared all but over. Mr O’Neill held a triumphal news conference in Morauta Haus, the official building for the prime minister’s office, after Sir Michael and his supporters were evicted. But Sir Michael maintains he is the legitimate ruler.
“No one arm of government is superior over another. Only our constitution is supreme,” he said.
The crisis has been fuelled by a looming election next year and the prospect of a $16 billion liquefied natural gas project. It has also been exacerbated by the chest-beating bravado of the region’s Big Man politics – an incendiary combination of ego, power and money.
A behind-the-scenes deal maker, the Governor of Enga, Peter Ipitas, who has sided with Sir Michael, said it was not over yet.
“PNG politics is not about policy, it’s about personality,’’ he said.
“As soon the money holding the O’Neill camp runs out, they’ll run back to Somare because they know he is on the right side.”