| People First Party | |
| Founder: | Luther Wenge |
| President: | Jack Masenu [1] |
| Secretary: | Peter Honale |
| Leader: | Richard Maru |
| Country: | Papua New Guinea |
| Blank1 Title: | National Parliament |
The People's First Party (also known as the People First Party, Pipol First Party or Pipol's First Party) is a political party in Papua New Guinea.
It was established in August 2001 by Morobe Province governor Luther Wenge.[2] Wenge was re-elected at the 2002 election and Tom Amukele elected for Okapa Open. Amukele attempted to defect to the governing National Alliance Party of Michael Somare, resulting in protests from Wenge; however, this did not occur after Wenge agreed to support Somare.[3] [4] [5] In September 2002, the party won a Supreme Court declaration that legislation introducing a value added tax was unconstitutional.[6] A reported merger with the United Party in October 2002 did not proceed, with the party reported to still have two MPs at that time: Wenge and Amukele.[7]
In March 2004, Wenge called for the resignation of Somare, alleging mishandling of the nation's affairs, and stated that he was willing to become Prime Minister.[8] However, the party continued to support the Somare government in parliament.[9] Wenge was the party's only MP to be elected at the 2007 election.[10] Wenge claimed, following the declaration of his seat in a close race against businessman Bob Sinclair, that he would introduce a law to restrict naturalised citizens from contesting elections because Papua New Guinea was "a black country and not white country".[11]
Wenge lost his seat at the 2012 election, and the party did not have parliamentary representation again until 2022.[12]
The party was registered to contest the 2017 election.[13]
At the 2022 election the party gained 4 seats in the 113-seat Parliament.