Papua New Guinea Lawmakers Weigh Bougainville’s Vote for Independence

Papua New Guinea’s Parliament has resumed debate on whether to ratify the 2019 vote in which the people of Bougainville chose independence, with Prime Minister James Marape warning that the country must find a way to respect that vote while holding the rest of the nation together.

In the referendum, 176,928 Bougainvilleans voted for independence and 3,043 for greater autonomy within Papua New Guinea, according to the Bougainville Referendum Commission, about 97.7 percent of all ballots cast. The commission put turnout at “at least 85 per cent.”

A high bar

Under the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement and Papua New Guinea’s constitution, the referendum result is not binding until the national Parliament ratifies it. In June, Parliament adopted a rule requiring an absolute three-quarters majority, or 89 of its 118 members, Papua New Guinea’s national broadcaster, NBC, reported.

The result was finally tabled in Parliament this year, Radio New Zealand reported, nearly three years after the end-of-2023 deadline set in the 2022 Era Kone Covenant between the two governments, which called for independence or another political settlement to be implemented no earlier than 2025 and no later than 2027.

This week’s debate

Debate resumed this week. “Let’s find something that doesn’t hurt Bougainville’s aspiration for self-determination but at the same time assists me and future prime ministers the ability to hold this diversity called Papua New Guinea together,” Marape said, according to the Pacific Islands News Association.

A vote date will be set “subject to concurrence with the autonomous Bougainville leadership,” he said. After this week, the debate will resume in November before an eventual vote, Radio New Zealand reported, adding that many speeches suggest the three-quarters threshold is unlikely to be met.

What Bougainville wants

Bougainville’s leaders say the matter is already settled. “The question has been asked, answered, and sealed in ink and blood,” Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama said in August, according to Pacific Media Network.

Nearly seven years after the vote, the people of Bougainville are still waiting for the lawmakers of another government to decide whether their answer counts.