An embarrassment of prime ministers
Full-blown constitutional crisis in Papua New Guinea, where two men vie to control the country with two cabinets and two governments each their own
By M.S. | SYDNEY
TWO heads are not always better than one. Less than a week after Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court set in motion the most serious constitutional crisis in the country's independent history, the South Pacific nation has two prime ministers, two cabinets, two governors-general and two police commissioners.
On December 12th the high court declared the prime-ministerial rule of Peter O'Neill (the upper of the two heads pictured, at right) to be illegitimate on the grounds that 75-year-old Sir Michael Somare (the lower of the two, at right), who was dumped as PM in August while receiving medical treatment in Singapore, had not vacated his office officially when Mr O'Neill replaced him.
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