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The Solomon Islands’ pro-China leader has pulled out of the fight to remain as the Pacific nation’s prime minister, in a decision sure to be felt in Canberra, Washington and Beijing.
Manasseh Sogavare tonight announced his successor as party leader, saying he’d been “vilified in the media” and that his family, including children, had been “subjected to unprecedented verbal abuse”.
“Our family home has been razed to the ground but that did not weigh on my resolve to continue to serve,” he said, at a media conference.
April 17’s election was the first since Sogavare signed a controversial security agreement with China and switched diplomatic allegiances from Taiwan to Beijing.
The security pact in particular raised fears about China stationing Navy ships on the archipelago, the capital of which is just 1700 kilometres from parts of the Queensland coast.
Australia has traditionally seen itself as the Solomon Islands’ “security partner of choice”, multiple times sending police and occasionally troops to help quell unrest.
The decisions and other examples of China’s growing influence on other countries in the region were key triggers of a renewed focus on the Pacific pursued by the Albanese government since taking office.
Sogavare had hoped to become the first Solomons prime minister to maintain power in consecutive four-year terms.
Instead, he thanked the country for the “privilege and honour of serving you since 2019” and anointed Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele to lead Our Party and the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation.
“They are the very bedrock upon which nations are built,” he said.
“Unity fosters a sense of transcending differences and promoting cooperation.
“Stability provides the necessary framework for progress and transformation, attracting investment, fostering innovation, ensuring peaceful coexistence.”
Sogavare claimed the coalition between his party and the People First Party had 28 members, which would be enough to elect a prime minister in the 50-seat parliament.
Observers expect China to have secretly backed more candidates than Sogavare at the election in a bid to ensure the government change does not diminish Beijing’s influence.
Sogavare could again return to power during the current four-year term. He was elected prime minister after the last election in 2019. But he has served as prime minister three times before 2019 because his predecessors had quit or were ousted by fellow lawmakers in a precarious political system.
Governor General Sir David Vunagi said the vote for prime minister would be held on Thursday morning.
– Reported with Associated Press
