Papua New Guinea voters to vote in heavily guarded election

Thousands of voters in Papua New Guinea live in poverty despite huge mineral and energy riches, and are expected to vote in heavily guarded elections on Monday.

More than 10,000 police, army and corrections services personnel have been mobilised for the vote in the Pacific island nation, which has a history of corruption and election-related killings.

Australia sent more than 130 troops with transport aircraft to secure the challenging and lengthy voting process.

In the run-up to the elections in the rugged, largely forested country of nine million, Prime Minister James Marape called for people to be free to vote. Election rivalries can quickly spill over into bloodshed in Papua New Guinea, especially in the remote and mountainous highlands provinces.

More than 200 election-related deaths and widespread serious irregularities have been recorded during the last vote in 2017 by Australian National University. 15 election-related deaths have already been recorded, according to Papua New Guinea police.

In the highlands of Enga, a candidate was charged with shooting and killing a supporter of a political rival on June 26, police told local media.

Marape conceded in an end-of- campaign message that there was still rampant corruption in all strata of public service and a lack of development despite the country's God-given resources.

The prime minister, who leads the Pangu party, said there was much more to be done for our country.

He faces a tough challenge from his predecessor Peter O'Neill, who resigned as leader three years ago due to endemic corruption and a perceived failure to spread mining wealth to the people.

O'Neill, of the People's National Congress party, has pledged to attract private investment and revive the resources industry.

The country has large deposits of gas, oil, gold and copper, as well as forestry and agricultural products.

Voting will take up to 18 days and an outcome isn't expected to be clear until August.

Analysts say that the new leader will have to cobble together a coalition government in the male-dominated 118 seat parliament, which has had no women members since the last election in 2017.

Jessica Collins, Pacific researcher at the Independent Sydney-based Lowy Institute think tank, said that elections are always messy and chaotic and can get very violent.

In an ethnically diverse country with more than 800 languages, analysts say voters are less interested in national issues than the material benefits that candidates can bring home to local communities.

People want to know what their candidate is going to do for them and the village: the real, hard currency stuff, Collins said.

The electoral roll is not up to date, and further complicating the process, said Pacific analyst Henry Ivarature at Australian National University.

The whole integrity of the election is already under question, he said.

The government that emerges from the election will have to face a lot of challenges.

Nearly 40 percent of the population lives below the international poverty line, according to a 2020 report by the World Bank.

The Asian Development Bank said last year that the resources and agriculture-dependent economy suffered a weak recovery after being battered by the Covid 19 epidemic, with only about three percent of the total population fully vaccinated.

Marape, who promised to make Papua New Guinea the richest black Christian nation, told voters that his government has started to take back the country's wealth for the people.