Papua New Guinea's election watchdog says two recent by-elections in the Highlands region were the most peaceful since violence marred polling there in 1982.
Andrew Trawen says he thanks the people and the community leaders of Chimbu Province and Anglimp-South Wahgi Open electorate in the Western Highlands for enabling the ballots to take place in peace.
Mr Trawen says a new polling system known as Limited Preferential Voting, which is being trialled in by-elections, has forced candidates to be more friendly to one another to get preference votes from opponents.
Under Limited Preferential Voting, candidates are elected by more than 50 per cent of the lawful voters in electorates - to be truly representative of their electorates.
