Update (25/07/10): I now have a complete list of parties contesting the 2010 election here.
I have been trying to keep track of the proliferation of new political parties (see previous posts here and here). My current tally is that nine new parties have been established and up to six existing parties are likely to re-contest.
This suggests that, once again, there is strong interest in the upcoming election, even before the election date is announced. And the true number of parties may be even higher. A couple of weeks ago, Radio Australia reported that 11 new parties have declared their intention to run in the upcoming elections.
Here is my latest tally …
The newest new parties
In the last week, three new parties have appeared in the online news (see previous post for details):
- the Solomon Islands People’s Congress Party, founded by current Deputy PM, Fred Fono.
- the Reform and Democratic Party of Solomon Islands (RDP-SI), founded by former politician Danny Phillip
- the Rural Congress People’s Party, established by Rev. Milton Talasasa
Other new parties
Here are the six other new parties that I’ve mentioned previously:
- The Ownership, Unity and Responsibility (OUR) party, co-founded by former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and 7-8 other MPs from the Grand Coalition for Change Government (GCCG).
- the People’s Federation Party, founded by Rudolf Henry Dorah
- The Autonomous Solomon Islanders Party (ASIP), co-founded by former politicians Jackson Sunaone (member for West Makira, 2000-01) and Denis Lulei (member for West Isabel, 1980-89 and for Maringe-Kokota, 1993-97).
- The Peace, Oneness and Prosperity party, founded by Delmah Nori, unsuccessfully candidate for Central Honiara in 2006
- The Solomon Islands United Nationalist Party (SUN) party, founded by colourful character and former secretary of Manasseh Sogavare’s SoCred party, Sri Ramon Quitales
- The People’s Power Action Party, founded by Robert Wales Feratelia, former Honiara Lord Mayor and unsuccessfully candidate for East Honiara in 2006 election
It is also possible that the Malaita Political Party may still be established by members of the Malaita Ma’asina Forum but I haven’t seen anything about it in the online news since September 2009.
Existing parties
There are seven parties listed on the Parliament web site. One of those, Manasseh Sogavare’s SoCred party, obviously won’t contest this election since Sogavare is now heading up OUR party. The other six parties are all members of the CNURA government and have recently signed a coalition agreement. It seems likely that most of these parties will re-contest
- People’s Alliance Party (PAP, est. 1979)
(prominent members: Allan Kemakeza) - Association of Independent Members (AIM, est. c.2001)
(prominent members: Snyder Rini, Tommy Chan) - Liberal Party (est. 1988)
(prominent members: late Bart Ulufa’alu, Japhet Waipora, Milner Tozaka) - Democratic Party (est. 2006)
(prominent members: Matthew Wale, Steve Abana) - Nasnol Pati (est. c.1997)
(prominent members: Francis Billy Hilly) - Party for Rural Advancement (est. 2006)
(prominent members: Job Dudley Tausinga, Gordon Darcy Lilo)
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