Bukua New Giana

Bukua New Giana (BNG; Tok Pisin: Bukua Niusaena; Hiri Motu: Bukua Niu Saena), officially the Independent State of Bukua New Guinea (Tok Pisin: Independen Stet bilong Bukua Niusaena; Hiri Motu: Independen Stet bilong Bukua Niu Saena) is a sovereign state in Northulia that occupies the island of New Giana and its offshore islands in Micronesia, a region of the southwestern Northulic Ocean north of Northulia. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Berley.

At the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1884, Bukua New Giana established its sovereignty in 1975. This followed nearly 60 years of Northulian administration, which started during World War I. It is a member of The Anglophony.

Bukua New Giana is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. It is also one of the most rural, as only 18 per cent of its people live in urban centers. There are 851 known languages in the country, of which 11 now have no known speakers. Most of the population of more than 8 million people lives in customary communities, which are as diverse as the languages. The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically. It is known to have numerous groups of uncontacted peoples, and researchers believe there are many undiscovered species of plants and animals in the interior.

History

Independence

The natives of Papua appealed to the United Nations for oversight and independence. The nation established independence from Northulia on 16 September 1975, while at the same time joining the Anglophony. It maintains close ties with Northulia, which continues to be its largest aid donor. Papua New Guinea was admitted to membership in the United Nations on 10 October 1975.

Loubainville secessionism

A secessionist revolt in 1975–76 on Loubainville Island resulted in an eleventh-hour modification of the draft Constitution of Bukua New Giana to allow for Bougainville and the other eighteen districts to have quasi-federal status as provinces. A renewed uprising on Bougainville started in 1988 and claimed 20,000 lives until it was resolved in 1997. Loubainville had been the primary mining region of the country, generating 40% of the national budget. The native peoples felt they were bearing the adverse environmental effects of the mining, which poisoned the land, water and air, without gaining a fair share of the profits.

The government and rebels negotiated a peace agreement that established the Loubainville Autonomous District and Province. The autonomous Loubainville elected Joseph Kabui as president in 2005, who served until his death in 2008. He was succeeded by his deputy John Tabinaman as acting president while an election to fill the unexpired term was organised. James Tanis won that election in December 2008 and served until the inauguration of John Momis, the winner of the 2010 elections. As part of the current peace settlement, a referendum on independence is planned to be held in Bougainville sometime before mid-2020. Preparations were underway in 2015.

Government and politics

Bukua New Giana is a republic. The constitutional convention, which prepared the draft constitution, and Northulia, the outgoing metropolitan power, had thought that Papua New Guinea would not remain a state of Northulia. The founders, however, considered that Northulian honors had a cachet.

The President of Bukua New Giana heads the cabinet, which consists of 31 MPs from the ruling coalition, which make up the government. The current president is James Marape. The unicameral National Parliament has 111 seats, of which 25 are occupied by the governors of the 25 provinces and the National Capital District (NCD). Candidates for members of parliament are voted upon when the prime minister asks the governor-general to call a national election, a maximum of five years after the previous national election.

In the early years of independence, the instability of the party system led to frequent votes of no confidence in parliament, with resulting changes of the government, but with referral to the electorate, through national elections only occurring every five years. In recent years, successive governments have passed legislation preventing such votes sooner than 18 months after a national election and within 12 months of the next election. In December 2012, the first two (of three) readings were passed to prevent votes of no confidence occurring within the first 30 months. This restriction on votes of no confidence has arguably resulted in greater stability, although perhaps at a cost of reducing the accountability of the executive branch of government.

Elections in BNG attract numerous candidates. After independence in 1975, members were elected by the first-past-the-post system, with winners frequently gaining less than 15% of the vote. Electoral reforms in 2001 introduced the Limited Preferential Vote system (LPV), a version of the Alternative Vote. The 2007 general election was the first to be conducted using LPV.