Women in the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

There have been 10 women in the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since the independence of Papua New Guinea in 1975.[1]

Name Period of service
Nahau Rooney 1977-1987
Waliyato Clowes 1977-1982
Dame Josephine Abaijah 1972-1982, 1997-2002
Dame Carol Kidu 1997-2012
Delilah Gore 2012-2017
Loujaya Kouza 2012-2017
Julie Soso 2012-2017
Rufina Peter 2022-
Kessy Sawang 2022-
Francesca Semoso 2023-

As of 1 February 2019, Papua New Guinea was one of only three countries in the world out of 235 that had no women in its legislative branch or parliament.[2] In the 2017 national election, 165 women ran for parliament out of a total of 3,000 candidates, or five percent. No women were elected, including the three female incumbents.[3] However, in the July 2022 national election, for 118 members of parliament, two were elected.[4] In October 2023, a further woman, Francesca Semoso, was elected to represent North Bougainville in a by-election.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Papua New Guinea". Pacific Women in Politics. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Women in Parliaments: World Classification".
  3. ^ Papua New Guinea’s Parliament Has No Women, https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/papua-new-guineas-parliament-has-no-women/
  4. ^ "PNG Election : Female Candidate Kessy Sawang wins Raikos Open Seat". Papua New Guinea today. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  5. ^ "Francesca Semoso is the first woman from Bougainville to be elected to Papua New Guinea's parliament". ABC Pacific. Retrieved 21 January 2024.