'Givim lo Aza' (Give it to the mother): Oro women in the 2017 Papua New Guinea National Elections

Abstract

This thesis is a political ethnography examining how women candidates campaigned in the 2017 national elections in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG). While the number of women candidates in PNG elections has increased significantly in the last 20 years, the political culture and electoral environment is progressively more inhospitable space for women to contest and participate in politics effectively. With no legislated temporary special measure implemented in PNG to date, women vying for national representation are encouraged simply to keep contesting until they get elected. This research illustrates that campaigning today is fundamentally about establishing leadership credibility, a process that is both expansive and expensive. Definitions of leadership credibility vary, but ultimately, to have credibility is to demonstrate and provide evidence to voters that one can deliver or provide services if elected. Organic demonstrations of credibility are achieved over a significant length of time by meeting sociocultural obligations through acknowledgement (luksave) and subsequent appropriate action (hanmak). Luksave and hanmak are derivatives and extensions of reciprocal relations that engender debt creation, a concept intrinsic to Papua New Guinean and, more broadly, Melanesian relations. While the concept of debt creation has sustained money politics, the proliferation and normalisation of money politics has also redefined the relational aspect of building credibility, even reducing it to a mere transaction and destabilising previous voting patterns. Moreover, this underlying structure presents a significant barrier for women candidates. In examining campaign procedures from the perspective of female candidates, the gendered nuances and gender bias of PNG politics become apparent. In building credibility, in recruiting komiti, (campaign committee) in organising travel logistics, and even in campaign rhetoric, gender-specific accommodations must be made. In evaluating candidates, voters use implicitly or explicitly gendered measures. This thesis provides further contextual evidence and empirical analysis of the claims that the PNG electoral space is not a level playing field, women candidates are not equal participants and 'campaigning like a man' will not necessarily benefit women competing in a hostile political environment.