Michael Somare Biography

Sir Michael Thomas Somare GCL GCMG CH CF SSI KSG PC MP (born 9 April 1936) is a politician who served as the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2002 to 2011; he had previously been Prime Minister from independence in 1975 until 1980 and again from 1982 until 1985. Somare's first two terms were as a member of the Pangu Party, but he then became leader of the National Alliance Party. He was re-elected as Prime Minister in the 2007 election, and his family announced his resignation due to ill health in June 2011.