China security pact at stake in Solomons election

Anti-China candidate vows to ditch the prime minister’s deal with Beijing if he wins vote

Vote counting is under way in the Solomon Islands Thursday with the outcome spelling either the continuation or end of incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s political fling with China.

“If we are in government, we will abolish the security treaty,” Peter Kenilorea, Sogavare’s rival for power in the Pacific nation, told Agence France-Presse from his village base on the island of Malaita.

“We don’t think that it’s beneficial to the Solomon Islands,” he said of the 2022 security pact that has seen Chinese police deployed to the island and which critics say paves the way for a possible Chinese military base.

Relations with China are a central issue in the Solomon Islands’ fiercely contested and keenly watched election, which took place on Wednesndayd.

The vote is being seen in part as a referendum on China’s efforts to stamp its mark on the region.

Kenilorea advocates rekindling ties with “traditional partners” like Australia, the United States and Taiwan.

“We don’t have natural enemies,” Kenilorea said, lamenting the fact that the Solomons has become a focal point for competition between the world’s two largest military and economic powers — China and the US.

“It has put us on the map for the wrong reasons. To raise tensions unneccessarily here, in the geopolitical scheme of things, is something we don’t really need,” he said.

State-backed Chinese news outlets have pushed reports that the US might orchestrate riots to block Sogavare from returning to power.

US Ambassador Ann Marie Yastischock said such rumors were “blatantly misleading.”

Chief electoral officer Jasper Anisi said that “everything is peaceful” so far — no mean feat in a nation where elections have often spilled over into violence.