Posted on 09 August 2022
It has been a difficult election period for Papua New Guinea. The violence so far has resulted in fewer deaths than the 2017 election, but shocking scenes of attack have been circulated widely through the media, dismaying many Papua New Guineans who had been hoping those days were behind them.
Whoever forms government will be faced with the difficult task of economic recovery and addressing deteriorating security in some parts of the country. Rapid population growth and a significant youth bulge, inflated cost of living, coupled with high unemployment, low levels of service delivery, poor health and education standards, bad governance, endemic gender-based violence and alarming numbers of high-powered weapons in some parts of the country, mean that by any objective measure, PNG is a fragile state.