Australia accused of pressuring WB to keep PNG PM in power

Australia accused of pressuring WB to keep PNG PM in power

Agence France-Presse, Port Moresby

Australia has been accused of pressuring the World Bank into helping it keep Sir Mekere Morauta in power as the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister celebrates personal victory in his country's elections.

Tuesday's early counting in what is seen as the most crucial poll since PNG was granted independence from Australia in 1975 showed Morauta has retained his seat in a result which he said gave his party "a good chance" of winning another term.

The election has been marred by deaths, violence, stolen ballot boxes, multiple voting and incomplete electoral rolls.

Now comes the allegation, screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) late on Monday, that Canberra pressured the World Bank to play down PNG's acute problems in an effort to help Morauta's government retain power.

Former World Bank representative to PNG Dan Weise told the ABC Canberra wanted the bank to support Morauta's privatization schemes regardless of the reservations of its own investigators.

"We were told on a number of occasions that the officials had clear briefs that the news from PNG was only to be good news that politically in Australia there was no interest in hearing bad news from PNG," Weise said.

Internal e-mails from a World Bank senior economist said the bank felt the "Australians are breathing down our necks."

The PNG government eventually withdrew Weise's visa when he started questioning if the country was meeting the conditions required for a US$200 million World Bank loan and he later resigned from the organization.

Australian Associated Press reported that Morauta's re- election is expected to buoy the hopes of major aid donors such as Australia and the World Bank, which are keen to see the economic reforms continue in this crime-ridden South Pacific nation.

Despite disquiet about privatization and military reforms, the reformist Morauta snared almost a quarter of the vote in his electorate, scoring 1,100 more votes than his nearest rival.

"This is my first hurdle," Morauta told reporters at a counting center in Port Moresby on Monday. "The next hurdle is to form government."

Morauta's seat was the first to be declared in two weeks of polling due to finish on Saturday. The outcome will not be known for at least another two weeks.

Analysts had expected Morauta would suffer from a public backlash against his party, the People's Democratic Movement (PDM), which has been tainted by corruption scandals.

But Morauta said he now expected the PDM to pick up as many as 20 of the 109 seats in the poll. "It's obvious now that alliances have to be established for a coalition," he told a news conference.

Police have confirmed that seven men were killed in election violence in the country's highlands last week. One man had his ears slashed while another had his fingers chopped off.