Political Reviews
Political Reviews nic maclellan volker boege, mathias chauchat, joseph daniel foukona, budi hernawan, michael leach, james stiefvater 497 Fiji and Vanuatu are not reviewed Initial steps for the referendum’s in this issue. preparation had been taken in 2016 and 2017, and in 2018 the process continued and intensified, with Bougainville several important decisions made and In 2018, political developments in the practical actions implemented. Most Autonomous Region of Bougainville importantly, at its meeting in Port in Papua New Guinea (PNG) were Moresby on 10–12 October 2018, the dominated by preparations for the Joint Supervisory Body (jsb), which is referendum on the future political the combined GoPNG-abg institution status of the region. All other issues in charge of the implementation of the were overshadowed by the efforts Bougainville Peace Agreement, agreed to make Bougainville “referendum on the question to be put to voters on ready.” In fact, considerable progress the referendum ballot. Bougainvilleans was made in this respect, particularly will be presented with two options: with preparations on the ground in “Option 1. Greater Autonomy or Bougainville. At the political level, Option 2. Independence” (Bougain- however, there were major delays, and ville News 2018b). This is different at the end of the year it was not clear from what the Bougainville side had whether the target date of 15 June initially proposed—they had simply 2019 could be met. wanted a “yes” or “no” to indepen- The referendum on Bougainville’s dence alternative. With the greater future political status is a core provi- autonomy option, the GoPNG is now sion of the Bougainville Peace Agree- presenting an alternative that sounds ment of 30 August 2001, which more positive, while at the same time terminated the decade-long war of opening a Pandora’s box of debate secession on the island.
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