The Native Iowan

Sogavare….

The opposition in Solomon Islands says pressure will keep building for the removal of Gordon Darcy Lilo as Prime Minister.
The parliamentary election of Mr Lilo two days ago triggered rioting in central Honiara.Among those rioting were groups claiming that Mr Lilo’s election doesn’t represent a change from his predecessor Danny Philip, whose government largely remains in place.

The opposition has lodged a motion of no-confidence against Mr Lilo to be voted on in parliament next Friday.

The former Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, says the motion is based on questions over Mr Lilo’s integrity.

“That’s what the civil society are concerned about. You cannot have a person who has a lot of allegations over his head to lead the government and talk about concern for government finances when he doesn’t believe in a single word he’s saying. So he needs to go. The pressure should be on him from day one.”

‘Bring it on’

NEWLY elected Prime Minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo will be facing a motion of no confidence next week.The Opposition office made the move with a notice being served to the Speaker of Parliament yesterday.

This came after the member of parliament for Gizo/Kolombangara was elected with a clear majority of 29 votes from the 49 Members of Parliament on Wednesday.

However, his victory was met with a huge protest from some members of the public which escalated into a rock throwing incident against the Police force in Honiara.

About six police officers were injured and police vehicles damaged while 22 youths have been arrested for unlawful activities.

Speaker to Parliament, Sir Allan Kemakeza confirmed receiving the letter from Opposition Leader, Dr Derek Sikua yesterday.

Sir Allan said that he (Dr Sikua) gave the letter which was attached with copies of statements from the Peoples Power and Malaita Ma’asina Forum, which was submitted  to the clerk and theParliament’s lawyer to look at first before being taken up for consideration.

The motion was filed by the Opposition due to the pressure from the civil society group.

Prime Minister Lilo yesterday welcomed the motion of no confidence.

Speaking to the media in his first press conference yesterday, PM Lilo said, “bring it on.”

“We can face them on the floor of Parliament,” he said.

Meanwhile, PM Lilo described the protest as politically motivated.

He claimed some of his friends were behind this protest by using ignorant citizens to get involve in this severe violent way.

Lilo said these same people made allegations against him twice in the past in the National General elections in which he returned with landslide victory.

He said it’s time the country must have a Government that put the interest of the people first.

Parliament will resume next Wednesday after PM Lilo moved a special adjournment in a short meeting yesterday morning.

This was to allow Lilo to name his cabinet ministers in his Government.

MORE than $1.1million in old hard cash had been removed from Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) over the weekend.

This was revealed by the board and management of Central Bank yesterday in a statement.

“The Central Bank of Solomon Islands would like to inform the public that there was a security breach on Sunday 13th November, 2011.”

It was revealed that a security officer assisted by accomplices removed soiled (old, defaced, torn) currency notes that were prepared and set aside for destruction.

“The amount of soiled notes removed totaled $1,157,550.00, all in fifty dollar notes,” the bank said yesterday.

This incident was reported immediately to the Police.

The Bank’s security cameras captured and recorded clearly the incident live on video footage.

The footage of the incident are now with the Police to assist them with their investigation.

The CBSI Board and Management have taken this incident very seriously and additional stringent security measures and procedures have been imposed.

The Bank assures the public that all services are continuing as normal.

The newly elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Gordon Darcy Lilo has been sworn in as the country’s new Prime Minister.
Prior to his swearing in hundreds marched to the Government house demanding the Governor General to halt the swearing in ceremony and protested that Lilo must step down.

The swearing in ceremony which was supposed to be at 2pm had to be delayed until 5pm before the swearing in ceremony took place.

Police dispersed the protesters and calmed the situation.

Meanwhile a tense situation at Chinatown was calmed down by the Royal Solomon Islands police force with the assistance of Participating Police force.

Opportunists who took advantage of the protest threw rocks at the police riot squad at Chinatown which resulted in a police officer being hospitalised.

The situation has since calmed down.

Gordon Darcy Lilo is the new Prime Minister of Solomon Islands.

Lilo won with a majority of 29 votes, retaining the current National Coalition for Rural Advancement’s reign.

Solomon Star’s Ednal Palmer reported that the media was barred from entering the parliament throughout the voting process.

After more than an hour behind closed doors, Gordon Darcy Lilo emerged through the Parliament doors, accompanied by the Governor General Sir Frank Kabui, who declared Gordon Darcy Lilo as the winner.

Gordon Darcy Lilo will now lead the Rural Advancement (NCRA) taking the role from the former Prime Minister Danny Philip who only sacked him last week.

The candidates included a former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.The Government House confirmed it received the names before 4pm yesterday between 3 and 3.34 pm.

Among the six are two new comers in politics; Douglas Ete and Moffat Fugui.

These names were released after some very hard discussions within the camps of the NCRA government, independent and the Opposition.

The National Coalition for Advancement (NCRA) government has sent in four candidates to two to the Opposition group.

The first candidate is John Moffat Fugui, Member of Parliament for Central Honiara.

He was nominated by MP for Rannogga/Simbo Charles Sigoto, MP for Savo/Russell Dickson Mua, MP for Temotu Nende Commins Mewa and MP for East Guadalcanal Bradley Tovosia.

Second candidate is Gordon Darcy Lilo MP for Gizo Kolombangara.

He was nominated by MP for Lau Baelelea Walter Folotalu, MP for East Are’Are Andrew Hanaria, MP for Central Makira Hypolite Taremae and MP for Baegu Asifola David Tome.

The third candidate is Samuel Maneto’ali MP for Gao Bugotu in Isabel.

He was nominated by MP for East Central Guadalcanal Joseph Onika, MP for South Vella La Vella Lionel Alex, MP for East Malaita Manasseh Maelanga and MP for Malaita Outer Islands Martin Kialoe

Fourth candidate is Manasseh Sogavare MP for East Choiseul.

He was nominated by West Kwaio MP Peter Tom, South Choiseul MP Elijah Doro Muala , Marovo MP Synder Rini and MP for West Makira Dick Ha’amori

Fifth candidate is Milner Tozaka MP North Vella Lavella, who was nominated by Job Duddley Tausinga MP for North New Georgia, Moses Garu MP for West Guadalcanal, Rick Hou MP for Small Malaita and Clay Forau MP for Temotu Vatud.

The final candidate is Douglas Ete MP for East Honiara who was nominated by Mathew Wale (Aoke/Langa Langa), Steve Abana (East Fataleka), David Day Pacha (South Guadalcanal) and James Tora (Ulawa/Ugi).

The six candidates have until the casting of ballots in Parliament on Wednesday to cancel their candidacy.

Meanwhile the various camps are currently in tense situation lobbying as the country awaits to elect its new leader.

With such a high number of nominations the election will go through elimination round before the final one is elected.

The election of the new Prime Minister came following the resignation of former Prime Minister Danny Philip on the floor of parliament moments before a motion of no confidence was to have been tabled by the Leader of Opposition Dr Derek Sikua.