Sogavare chases new term
Result could impact China's influence in the South Pacific
The country in which China has gained most influence in the South Pacific, Solomon Islands, go to the polls today in an election that could shape the region’s future.
Current Prime Minister Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who switched the Solomons’ allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and ignited fears of China gaining a naval foothold in the South Pacific, is seeking an unprecedented second consecutive term at the government’s helm.
Even if Sogavare fails, observers suspect China will be backing more than one pro-Beijing candidate in the murky contest for the Solomons’ top job in an effort to cement Beijing’s growing influence.
There are also fears the electoral process could again ignite violence in a restive nation.
Voters from among 700,000 people spread over the more than 900 islands that comprise the Solomon Islands will elect 50 lawmakers from 334 candidates. Only 21 candidates are women and none of them is currently in office. The only two women in the current parliament won’t contest the election.
The 50 newly elected lawmakers decide which of them will become prime minister. No political party ever wins the 26-seat majority needed to form a government in a system derived from the former British colonial masters’ Westminster system.
The eve of the election is known as Devil’s Night when candidates and their campaign teams are notorious for resorting to underhand means to skew results in their favour such as by buying votes. That can take the form of paying voters’ transport costs to get home to electoral districts where they’re registered to vote, offers of cash for votes or paying influential local leaders to voice support.
After the election, lawmakers form camps around hotels in the capital Honiara where horse trading takes place to persuade a majority to back various candidates for prime minister. Ministerial posts are offered as inducements. Foreign business figures from the mining, logging, retail and tourism industries also take part in negotiations.
Sogavare was sworn in three weeks after the 2019 election date.
He has been made prime minister four times and hopes to become the first to gain a second consecutive term in the Solomons’ 12th parliament since independence in 1978.
The 69-year-old former bureaucrat first came to power in 2000 when he replaced Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu who had been kidnapped by a rebel militia and resigned from office in exchange for his freedom. Sogavare remained in power for 17 months before he was replaced in the 2001 election.
Riots following the 2006 election, which were fuelled by allegations of Chinese interference, led to Prime Minister Snyder Rini’s resignation after a week in office and Sogavare’s second 18-month stint as leader.
Sogavare’s third stint started at the 2014 election but he was ousted by lawmakers three years later with a no-confidence vote.
Sogavare’s rule since the 2019 election has been his longest stretch in power and his five-year administration has been transformative.
He swung the Solomons from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019, five months after taking power and shocked the United States and its allies by signing a security pact with Beijing in 2022.
Sogavare delayed the election, which was due last year, through an act of parliament because he argued the country couldn’t afford to hold the poll and host the regional Pacific