- Paias Wingti
Paias Wingti (born
1951 ) is aPapua New Guinea npolitical figure . He served as theprime minister of Papua New Guinea between1985 and1988 , and again from1992 to1994 .Wingti is a member of the
Jika Tribe of the Western Highlands province. While doing his final year in Economics at theUniversity of Papua New Guinea , he stood for election in1977 , winning to become a member of the Hagen Open in the country's National Parliament. In 1985, as leader of thePeople's Democratic Movement (which had broken away from thePangu Party ), he became the youngest Prime Minister in the Commonwealth whenMichael Somare lost a confidence vote.Julius Chan , who would himself become Prime Minister, served as his deputy.In
1987 Wingti returned to power with a slender majority of three votes. He announced a more independent foreign policy, attempting to enhance relations with theSoviet Union , U.S.,Japan andChina . He lost a motion of confidence in 1988 with changes in the shifting coalition and was succeeded byRabbie Namaliu , the new leader of the Pangu Party, but Wingti returned for a further two-year stint in 1992. His second term was marked by an escalation of unrest in Bougainville and he was ousted by Julius Chan in August 1994. Wingti continued to represent the Western Highlands in theNational Parliament of Papua New Guinea , although he switched from the local Hagen constituency to the provincial-level electorate in1995 .Wingti served as the governor of Western Highlands Province from
1995 to1997 , when he was defeated for re-election by FatherRobert Lak . He returned to parliament in2002 , defeating Lak to regain his seat and the governorship. He subsequently won back the leadership of the People's Democratic Movement fromMekere Morauta , who had taken over after his defeat, in2007 . However, he was defeated in his bid for re-election at the 2007 election, losing to former student activistTom Olga , largely as a result of the new preferential voting system. [http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Paias-Wingti-loses-seat-in-PNG-elections/2007/08/07/1186252667808.html] . Wingti, along with fellow former Prime MinisterRabbie Namaliu , were the most high-profile losers of the election. Additionally, Wingti lost the governorship of West Highlands Province to Olga. The PDM also suffered a major defeat in the election, losing several seats.
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