PORT MORESBY - Papua New Guinea could be better off considering a presidential-style system of governance instead of the sometimes chaotic Westminster system it has, outgoing opposition leader Dame Carol Kidu says.
However, any move in that direction would have to be slow and carefully legislated to ensure the president's powers were bound by proper checks and balances to stop the nation slipping into a dictatorship.
"My gut feeling is, and without doing an academic analysis, that maybe we'd be better to go in that direction as long as it's thoughtfully legislated so that that president could not become a dictator," the Australian-born MP told AAP.
"It would have to have checks and balances.
"Certainly this system at present is fraught with problems with numbers, having to buy numbers."
Dame Carol says former prime minister Sir Michael Somare spent his time trying to satisfy his broad parliamentary coalition during his nine-year term.
It was an impossible task that saw the bulk of MPs abandon him to form government behind Peter O'Neill last August after the Somare government came under the grip of a kitchen cabinet.
"There were too many of them, things had to be compromised," she says.
"I'm sure the present government will feel the same thing." Dame Carol's comments come as Vanuatu's first head of state, George Sokomanu, publicly appealed for support to move his country to a presidential system.
"We feel that there are certain things that cause the problems, and that is the governance itself," he told Radio Australia on Monday.
"For instance there are instances of corrupt practices and bribery and the way they entice political parties to change sides and so on, it causes instability.
"We feel that these problems for the last 30 years must not occur again and we have a solution to fix that."