Solomon Islands: The Australian government offered to help with the national election, but the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands reacted angrily, calling it "foreign interference".
Manasseh Sogaware's government described the timing as "inappropriate", saying Australia's offer "comes at a time when a bill to postpone elections ... is now up for deliberation before the Solomon Islands national parliament." "
The Solomon Islands government said last month that the nation lacked the capacity to host both events in the same year and therefore submitted a bill to parliament to postpone national elections, which are due to take place in the country's capital, in mid-2023. was scheduled for seven months later. Hosted the Pacific Games.
Concerns were expressed about the decision both domestically (opposition lawmakers called it "nonsense") and internationally.
When Sogaware signed a secret security deal with China in April, Solomon Islands opposition leader Matthew Valle worried that democratic processes would be eroded. He told the Guardian he believed the decision to postpone the election was a "power grab".
Australia often provides financial and logistical support to Pacific countries to help conduct national elections, such as the recent elections in Papua New Guinea and the previous elections in the Solomon Islands.
Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong noted that Australia had previously supported the Solomon Islands and said the proposal demonstrates Australia's "long and historic commitment" to democracy in the Pacific.
In the Pacific, Senator Wong claimed that government support for the elections was "reasonably modest".
The government, according to Sogaware, "accepts and appreciates the proposal" but has problems making it public.
Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday that "we have offered assistance, and it is a matter for the Solomon Islands whether they respond and how they want to respond."
According to a statement from Sogaware's office, Wong sent a letter last week to the Solomon Islands government offering funds for the election.
“When the Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs announced the proposal to the Australian media, the Solomon Islands government was in the midst of a reaction. The announcement was made on the same day that the bill was first read in Parliament.
According to the statement, the bill is intended for debate and vote by elected members of parliament and not by the Australian government.
Australian Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham described Wong's action as a "huge misstep".
"The offer to help with these elections is a perfectly reasonable proposition," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday. "However, it appears that the execution of this proposal was handled poorly."
Relations between Australia and the Solomon Islands have been strained since a draft of a security agreement between China and the Pacific nation of the Solomon Islands was leaked in March.
In a sign that he may ban foreign journalists from the country, Sogaware suggested that relations between the two countries had turned "sour" and accused Australian journalists of providing xenophobic coverage of the China deal.
However, Sogaware requested a hug from Anthony Albanese at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji in July and told the Guardian that Australia remains the Solomon Islands' "security partner of choice" and that it will only send security personnel from China to the nation. Will request to send. If there was a "gap" that Australia could not fill.
The Solomon Islands parliament will conduct a second reading of a bill related to the delay in elections today, and is set to vote on Thursday.
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