![collabora code port collabora code port](https://d33wubrfki0l68.cloudfront.net/218f9eddc98b3557723329604774227096ac0b15/6d1e1/images/collabora-online.png)
Though these names are accorded popular acceptance, they remain unofficial, as formal changes in province names require amendments to the Constitution, using the prescribed amending formula. For example, Bougainville became North Solomons, Western became Fly River, Chimbu became Simbu, Northern became Oro, and West Sepik became Sandaun. Several provincial governments have adopted a local name for their province. Ultimately in June 1995, in an effort to re-assert a measure of control by the central government over the often wayward provinces in an environment of limited numbers of personnel qualified for public office in many of the provinces, the office of the provincial premier was abolished and the regional (at-large) members of Parliament became provincial governors, while also retaining their seats in Parliament. Changes in the boundaries of those provinces which are adjacent to the former boundary between the Territories of Papua and New Guinea can cause special complications in the administration of statutes that apply in Papua or New Guinea but not both. Indeed, there have been suspensions of several provincial governments to address corruption or incompetence by elected provincial governments. Unlike Canada, Australia, and the United States, whose federal governments are creatures of the provinces or states, but as with the provinces and states of Pakistan and India, the provinces are creatures of the central government and can be suspended by it or have their boundaries changed. Until 1995, the provinces had elected provincial assemblies and cabinets led by premiers however, the country remained unitary, not federal. A constitution was drafted for a more autonomous regional polity within Papua New Guinea with its own president and provisions for a referendum on total autonomy in due course.
![collabora code port collabora code port](https://help.nextcloud.com/uploads/default/original/3X/e/a/eaec53ca9e9a457a8f01f1db4c2a08c7dd0d9d7d.png)
The Bougainville secessionists came to terms with the central government in 1997. The Sandline affair of 1997 was a political scandal that became one of the defining moments in Papua New Guinea's history, particularly that of the conflict in Bougainville. A renewed secession movement emerged in 1988 and resulted in a violent military campaign on the island, the closing of the Bougainville Copper Mine with serious financial consequences for the central government, the destruction or running-down of most infrastructure on the island and, ultimately, the total quarantining of the province for a decade. For the sake of consistency, as there were or had been regional separatist movements in Papua and East New Britain, provincial status was offered to the other 18 Districts as well.īougainville continues to be a special case. The Bougainville secession movement declared the Republic of the North Solomons on 1 September 1975 and the central government very quickly responded by offering provincial status to Bougainville. However, a secessionist movement in Bougainville, whose copper mine provided the largest single source of foreign exchange and whose contribution to the general revenue was crucial to the independent state's economic viability, forced the issue. It had been considered that an independent state with limited resources could ill afford the infrastructure of a two-level quasi-federal governmental structure. These provinces corresponded to the "Districts" of the pre-Independence administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Immediately before independence on 16 September 1975, Papua New Guinea was divided into nineteen provinces and the National Capital District.