Pro-China Solomon Islands leader Manasseh Sogavare has announced his withdrawal from the race to hold the nation’s top office after this month’s elections, in which several members of his party lost their seats.
Sogavare, who has served four times as leader of the Pacific nation, was vying to be the country’s first prime minister to be returned after serving a full term. But unfavorable results at the polls appear to have spurred him to change his plans.
While the 69-year-old was reelected to his local seat, more than half of the incumbent members of his Ownership, Unity and Responsibility party (OUR) lost their races, a result described as an “emphatic defeat” for the veteran politician.
With no party able to secure a majority from the April 17 vote — as is typically the case in the Solomon Islands — the post-election period has involved intense behind-closed-doors negotiations between the 50 elected MPs in the capital Honiara to select a leader and governing coalition.
At a press conference on Monday, Sogavare said he was stepping aside to usher in new leadership for his party, which had formed a coalition with the People First Party and Kadere Party.
The coalition, called the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation (CNUT), had nominated Jeremiah Manele, who served as foreign minister in Sogavare’s government, as their candidate for PM, Sogavare said.
“OUR Party has over the years grown in strength and maturity and we recognize that we need to have succession plans and grooming future leaders for our beloved country,” he said. “We also recognize the need to allow for aspiring leaders to be given the opportunity to lead our people given the continuous, ever-changing political landscape.”
As foreign minister, Manele backed Sogavare’s move to recognize China, saying that it was “the right decision, putting us on the right side of history.”
In 2023, Manele told the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, that the decision had “paid off” while also rejecting claims that Beijing used “dollar diplomacy” to induce his country to break ties with Taiwan.
