SYDNEY: Manasseh Sogavare, the Solomon Islands prime minister who drew his nation close to China, sharpening the United States’ focus on the strategic importance of the Pacific Islands, has bowed out of the race for leader after an inconclusive election.
Sogavare is known for his unpredictable diplomacy. He criticised neighbour Australia, snubbed a White House meeting with Pacific leaders because he said he wanted to avoid a lecture, and declared “I’m back home” while stepping off a plane in Beijing a few months later.
At election rallies, Sogavare said he had put Solomon Islands on the map by striking a security pact with China. Yet he only narrowly won his East Choiseul seat during last Wednesday’s (Apr 24) vote, as opposition parties highlighted how health services ran out of medicine as Beijing built sporting stadiums.
“He has bowed out because of the poor performance of his party,” said Australian National University Pacific expert Graeme Smith.
Solomon Islands lawmakers will vote for a prime minister on Thursday, and Sogavare’s party, which lost half its seats, has nominated former Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele as its candidate.
Opposition parties, who criticised the arrival of Chinese police in the archipelago in 2022, have formed a coalition, and will also seek to woo independents to reach the 26 seats needed to form a government.
The son of Seventh Day Adventist missionaries, Sogavare’s thundering delivery in parliament was reminiscent of a preacher, and his rhetoric against Western-style democracy was often extreme, analysts said.
Lowy Institute research fellow Mihai Sora, a former Australian diplomat in the Solomon Islands, said Sogavare has been a polarising figure, and “a lightning rod for international scrutiny, which also put a great deal of pressure on the national government”.
“MPs may have decided this time around that a less strident figure would have a better chance of being accepted by an already frustrated community, and may reduce some of the recent tensions with international partners,” he said.
Manele has “a strong track record of working well with all international partners”, he added.
