General elections were held in Papua New Guinea from 30 June 2007 to 14 July 2007. For the first time, the election did not use first past the post (which has in the past resulted in a very volatile political system, with the election of a candidate being largely a matter of chance due to the large number of candidates), but rather Limited Preferential Voting, in which voters number their three most preferred candidates. PNG Police reported three deaths caused by election-related violence during the election period, a large decrease in the 100 deaths which occurred during the 2002 elections. 11,000 police officers and soldiers were deployed throughout the country to police the elections and keep the peace.