A leading contender to become the Solomon Islands’ next prime minister yesterday vowed to rip up a security pact with China as the Pacific nation began counting votes in its general election.
“If we are in government, we will abolish the security treaty,” Peter Kenilorea told reporters from his village base on the island of Malaita. “We don’t think that it’s beneficial to the Solomon Islands.”
Relations with China are a central issue in the Solomon Islands’ election, which took place on Wednesday.
Photo: AFP
The vote is being seen in part as a referendum on China’s efforts to stamp its mark on the region.
With vote counting already under way, Kenilorea’s comments highlight the stakes for Solomon Islands and the south Pacific region.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has championed deeper ties with Beijing as a way of developing the nation.
The centerpiece of Sogavare’s embrace was a 2022 security pact that has seen Chinese police deployed to the nation and which critics say paves the way for a possible Chinese military base.
In contrast, Sogavare’s rivals such as Kenilorea advocate rekindling ties with “traditional partners” like Taiwan, Australia and the US.
“We don’t have natural enemies,” Kenilorea said, lamenting the fact that the Solomon Islands 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 unnecessarily here, in the geopolitical scheme of things, is something we don’t really need,” he said.
Those tensions were on clear display as ballots were trucked into a heavily guarded counting center in the capital, Honiara, watched over by international teams of uniformed Fijian soldiers and Australian police.
Claims of foreign interference have upped the ante for a vote billed as one of the nation’s most crucial in a generation.
State-backed Chinese news firms have pushed reports that the US might orchestrate riots to block Sogavare from returning to power.
US Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu Ann Marie Yastishock said such rumors were “blatantly misleading.”
“We strongly refute allegations being made in known propaganda outlets that claim USAID [US Agency for International Development] and the US government has sought to influence the upcoming election in Solomon Islands,” she said in a statement.
Solomon Islands chief electoral officer Jasper Anisi said that “everything is peaceful.”
Hand counting the paper votes is only the start of an arduous electoral process.
Once the parliament’s 50 members are elected, they will begin bartering with each other behind closed doors to cobble together a ruling coalition.
Only once that has been done will a prime minister emerge.
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