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.
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