PNG Attitude's Bougainville scribe, Aloysius Laukai, is a good local electoral punter on Bougaiville: his bet that "Momis will be next Bougainville President" is spot on and he won.

In last week's Bougainville presidential elections results, former PNG Ambassador to China, John Momis, won with a landslide victory, and will be the next President of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

Congratilations to John Momis for his win at the polls. My only hope now is he includes some very capable and politically astute women (who also ran in this particular election )in his new administration when he makes some changes to his new government team.

I urge the new President (if either his advisors or he personally reads PNG Attitude) to accomodate two very capable women MPs in the last regime: Magdalene Toroansi and Francisca Semesoa.

This action by John Momis is very important. It will show to his island province that the new political leadership is serious about improving the lot of Bougainville women and youth.

In my time on the island during the period of insurgency the PNGDF was involved in, I came to greatly admire the hard-working women of Bougainville to broker peace with their menfolk and the national government under very difficult conditions.

Bougainville women have been instrumental in bringing peace to the warring factions and the PNG government since the bloody days of the Bougainville political crisis that lasted over a decade.

President John Momis's new government will set a new course and agenda for Bougainville and the rest of PNG will be closely watching his leadership from this point on.