A no-confidence vote may be moved soon against Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.
The item reminds me of one of the restrictions on parliamentary confidence in PNG’s democracy:
As the Constitution does not allow any vote of no-confidence in a prime minister 18 months before the next general elections, a vote must be called by the end of the year.
Essentially, this provision means that the parliamentary system is converted for the final 30% of a parliamentary term into an “assembly independent” system (defined as one in which the executive originates from the legislative assembly, but survives independently of any loss of confidence).
Do any other (otherwise) parliamentary systems have similar provisions restricting parliament’s ability to hold “its” executive to account?
If a vote of no confidence is moved in the last 12 months it must not name an alternative prime minister and the effect is to dissolve the house and trigger an early election. There is a period of grace for 18 months from the date of appointment of a new prime minister.
The period of grace was originally set at 6 months, but has been extended several times since. 18 months is far too long in my view, despite the watchdog mechanisms by which a prime minister can be removed without a vote of confidence.
Seed planted by Alan — 12 July 2010 @ 11:33
Whoops, went hyper on the send button again. I do not know how common periods of grace are. Without doing an actual count, I’d say that votes of no confidence triggering an early election instead of a new government in the last year are fairly common. That is the rule in Victoria and New South Wales which both have fixed term parliaments.
Seed planted by Alan — 12 July 2010 @ 11:42
The PNG supreme court has just invalidated large sections of the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties. Sadly I do not have a link for any details. Roughly the court’s ruling allowed government MPs to vote against the incumbent prime minister. Previously their right to do so was restricted in various ways.
The deputy PM immediately moved a vote of no confidence and things are now a bit up in the air. The parliament must meet tomorrow to install a new governor-general and there will then be a debate over adjourning (and avoiding the vote) or staying in session and debating whether to sack the government.
I did find an excellent blog for PNG politics.
Seed planted by Alan — 20 July 2010 @ 12:17
The OLIPPAC decision.
Seed planted by Alan — 21 July 2010 @ 00:39