PNG: THE RULES OF THE GAME

A story about the absence of blood... of how "a massacre of an election" was avoided... and became a triumph of emerging democracy.

In Iraq, the battle for democracy means daily horror and bloodshed. In Papua New Guinea in early 2007 - ahead of a mid-year general election - there were widely-held fears of violence, bloodshed and mayhem - a repeat of the murderous 2002 poll - accusations of rampant corruption on a colossal scale.

As the election unfolded, a powerful white entrepreneur, a traditional PNG coffee magnate and a woman who owns a chicken market, found the answer.

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