THE Political Parties Integrity Act clearly states that the leader of the political party with the highest number of winning candidates in Parliament should be the Prime Minister.

Dr Alice Pollard provided this insight during a panel interview over the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) when asked about the current lobbying environment following the final declaration of winners in the recent Joint Election.

“This is what the Act says if we follow it to the letter,” she said.

However, she iterated that party leaders can join forces on the understanding that the leader of the party with the highest candidate is given the Prime Minister’s post.

Dr Pollard added that if leaders continue to pull in all directions with the intention of becoming Prime Minister, then what will eventually unfold is up to anyone’s guess.

She added that with three former prime ministers Manasseh Sogavare, Gordon Darcy Lilo and Rick Houenipwela in the political arena, it would not be a surprise if they put up their hands for the most coveted job in the land.

“Nonetheless, if we are guided by the Act, things will smoothly fall in place,” she said.

In his contribution, Dr Gordon Nanau, a Suva – based Solomon Islands academic said that if statistics are anything to go by, OUR Party has the opportunity to form the next government.

Dr Nanau, however, added that a possible marriage between Solomon Islands Democratic Party (SIDP) together with Democratic Alliance Party (DAP) to form a party is a possibility.

“Then we also have the United Party (UP) which has also secured a good number of seats in the elections,” he said.

Dr Nanau stressed that what we are seeing at the moment is the possibility of either the emergence of the previous opposition to take up the leadership of the country or OUR Party retaining power.

“At the moment, those two camps are obvious but as far as politics in Solomon Islands are concerned, anything can happen,” Dr Nanau said.

By Samson Sade
Solomon Star, Honiara