Francesca Semoso Photo: Facebook.com/Francesca Semoso
The incoming Papua New Guinea (PNG) national MP for North Bougainville, Francesca Semoso, says "what you see is what you get".
Semoso is the third woman MP in PNG's national parliament and the first woman from Bougainville to win a seat in the national parliament.
A staunch advocate for Bougainville's independence, she is part of the PNG prime minister James Marape's Pangu Pati.
Semoso said Marape knows she has been pushing for independence in Bougainville for the past twenty years.
She said the catalyst for standing in the by-election for the national seat, after two terms in the Bougainville parliament, was the overwhelming result for independence in the referendum in 2019.
"Knowing in 2019 when the results came out that the people of Bougainville wanted to be independent, which they assured through the ballot box, it dawned on me that we had to have a voice that would actually be pushing for that particular issue," she said.
"But never did it ever cross my mind that I would be running for the national election. I thought the stakes were too high for me at that time."
She said the four Bougainville MPs must work together to get the independence message across.
Bougainville is expecting to achieve independence by 2027 but this is reliant on the PNG Parliament backing their plan.
Semoso said they all need to work together to convince their other colleagues.
"We have got to start dialoguing. We need to make the non-Bougainvilleans in that parliament, we need to start sensitising them about where we have been, to where we are, to where we are going," she told RNZ Pacific.
"So, nothing will be understood until after I and the other three MPs start talking about the issues of Bougainville."
Passionate about women in politics
The new national MP also spoke about her time in the Bougainville parliament, in which she spent two terms from 2005 to 2010 and then from 2015 to 2020, holding one of the three seats reserved for wommen.
Semoso said she has always advocated getting more women into parliament, and is passionate about the Bougainville reserve seats.
"I have always looked at the reserve seats in Bougainville as a launching pad for aspiring women politicians."
Marape said Semoso's election showed his Pangu Pati's commitment to promoting women into leadership roles.
The victory bolsters Pangu Pati's representation, giving them 54 seats in the national parliament, up from the 39 they won in the election in 2022.
"Semoso's election stands as a beacon of hope and progress, highlighting the remarkable strides being made towards gender equality in PNG," he said.
Prime Minister James Marape, sitting middle, congratulating Francesca Semoso, sitting second from right, with Pangu Pati executives and MPs while endorsing her as a candidate for North Bougainville in June 2023. Photo: PNG Office of the Prime Minister