opposition. Later that year, O'Neill became leader of the opposition, but Speaker Jeffery Nape initially did not recognise him and claimed Peter Yama held the position instead. In response, O'Neill tried to mount a vote of no confidence without success since Somare and Nape used procedural issues to stop this. After the 2007 elections, O'Neill rejoined Somare's government as the Minister of the Public Service. In July 2010, he was appointed as the Minister of Finance. When Somare was hospitalised in 2011, Sam Abal was appointed as acting prime minister, who demoted O'Neill to Works Minister in July 2011. Prime minister Cabinet O'Neill/Namah (2011-2012) In April 2011, Somare fell ill and flew to Singapore for treatment. O'Neill then led the opposition in ousting Abal as acting prime minister. He was then elected by the Parliament as prime minister with 70 of the 94 votes cast. O'Neill's claim to the position was challenged by both the East Sepik Province, where Somare was also governor, and Somare himself when he returned from Singapore. The Supreme Court ruled that Somare was the legitimate prime minister but O'Neill retained overwhelming support in parliament. O'Neill and Somare both claimed the title of prime minister and thus arose the 2011–2012 Papua New Guinean constitutional crisis. It was resolved when the Governor General decided to call for new elections. Cabinet O'Neill/Dion (2012-2017) In the 2012 general election, O'Neill's PNC obtained 27 seats, an increase from the 5 seats in the previous Parliament. A broad coalition appeared to support him, with 94 seats out of the 119-member Parliament. This coalition contained three ex-prime ministers, among whom was Somare. Cabinet O'Neill/Abel (2017-2019) The PNC, which was headed by O'Neill, was the largest political party in the outcome of the 2017 elections. The election of former prime minister Mekere Morauta in the 2017 Papua New Guinean general election was a challenge, but this did not endanger the position of O'Neill. His party had the most seats and this entitled O'Neill constitutionally to form the government. However, PNC won a mere 21 seats in the 106 seats strong parliament. This was substantially less than the 52 seats PNC had occupied at the end of the previous parliament. He needed to form a coalition from a weak base in a fragmented parliament. O'Neill succeeded again in doing that: he gained the support of 60 MPs, with 46 MPs in opposition.The majority was