Political turmoil in Papua New Guinea (PNG) deepened yesterday as the opposition raised doubts about an offer from PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to resign and vowed a long fight to get rid of him as uncertainty knocked shares linked to its resources sector.
Protests over the benefits of investment failing to reach the hinterland have dogged the government, sapping enough support from the ruling coalition for the opposition to claim it can now command a parliamentary majority.
O’Neill had resisted calls to resign for weeks, but his opponents on Friday said that they had rallied enough support in parliament to oust him.
Photo: AP
On Sunday, he said he would quit in favor of former PNG prime minister Julius Chan.
However, O’Neill has yet to formally resign and has said he has filed a court challenge to a looming vote of no confidence.
At the same time, it was not clear whether an opposition-dominated chamber would accept Chan when parliament resumes today.
O’Neill’s spokesman yesterday said that he would not quit before his court challenge to the procedure for a no-confidence vote is heard and there is no timetable for that.
William Duma, who quit his position as state investment minister on Friday and led his party over to the opposition, said O’Neill was the key to ending the political crisis.
“If he does the honorable thing and resigns, it’ll be over and we will have a new leader,” Duma said by telephone from the Lagnua Hotel in the capital, Port Moresby, where the opposition has been camped for weeks mustering support.
“If he drags it, we are prepared to go in for the long haul, because we have lost our respect for him,” he said, citing corruption accusations — which O’Neill denies — and what he described as the prime minister’s dictatorial style among reasons for his defection from the government’s ranks.
Analysts say political turbulence will delay projects on the drawing board and put future plans under a cloud, while Total SA and ExxonMobil Corp, oil majors with interests in PNG, would be watching closely.
Paul Barker, executive director at Port Moresby-based think tank Institute of National Affairs, said that O’Neill could be playing for time, perhaps in the hope of building new alliances.
“A lot of people think that it’s a fudging exercise to draw the process out for a fair while and to somehow avoid the vote of no confidence,” Barker said. “PNG politics is a very fluid thing and there are not many ideological reasons why you would be on one side or another, so you can flow fairly readily.”
The impasse threatens to delay a US$13 billion plan led by Total to double liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, sending shares in one of its partners, Oil Search Ltd, down nearly 4 percent yesterday.
“The resignation of Peter O’Neill will delay first gas from the LNG expansion projects until beyond 2025,” Wood Mackenzie analyst David Low said by e-mail.
“While we still expect the project to go ahead, the political turmoil opens the door to competing projects and increases the risk of knock-on delays,” Low said.
Chan’s position as caretaker was also unclear, after he said he was not seeking the leadership and would only take it if he had the support both government and opposition, which he was yet to secure.
“We will not choose him,” opposition lawmaker Allan Bird told reporters in a text message. “We want a complete break from O’Neill [and] Chan is just a proxy for O’Neill.”
If O’Neill is replaced, foreign energy companies could find themselves dealing with a less friendly government.
Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said the turmoil could put pressure on the government to negotiate tough terms for an ExxonMobil gas agreement, which has yet to be finalized, and affect talks on development costs.
“Both these factors heighten the risk of delay,” he said in a note to clients.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese