The election of veteran politician Manasseh Sogavare for another term as prime minister of the Solomon Islands yesterday sparked violent protests in the capital, with riot police deployed to maintain order.
Eyewitnesses reported unrest in Chinatown and at least one other area of Honiara after Sogavare won the backing of lawmakers for a record fourth term in office.
Shops and offices closed, and workers were advised to go home as police and community leaders appealed for calm.
Photo: AFP
Following an inconclusive election earlier this month, Sogavare won the backing of 34 of 50 members of parliament in a controversial runoff, with his opponents boycotting the vote.
“I wish to assure the nation that we are listening; it has not fallen on to deaf ears,” he said.
It is the first election in the Solomon Islands since thousands of Australian-led peacekeepers left in 2017.
A 2006 election prompted widespread rioting in the capital, with shops in Chinatown looted and burned down, forcing foreign peacekeepers to step in.
Within hours of the ballot yesterday, there was similar unrest.
“Each time an election of this sort happens, we have to move to my parent’s place, where it is safer,” said a food outlet owner in Chinatown, who asked not to be named. “Imagine each time, we have to pack our stuff, get the kids and move out from our place. It had been like this since the big riot in 2006. It is like the normal thing to do now.”
Sogavare’s last term in office ended abruptly in a 2017 vote of no confidence amid unconfirmed allegations that he had received donations from China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
The Solomon Islands is one of Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies, but is being courted by China, which has been investing heavily in the Pacific.
The Solomon Islands, where only about half of the population have access to electricity, is heavily reliant on foreign aid.
In the run-up to the election, several politicians, including Caretaker Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela, were reported to have said that they would review diplomatic relations with Taiwan if elected.
Houenipwela is a member of Sogavare’s Democratic Coalition Government for Advancement.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS