SOLOMON IS: Opposition claims to have the numbers
Updated
As Solomon Islands waits anxiously for tomorrow's election of a new prime minister, the opposition says it has the numbers to take over government. Opposition leader, Fred Fono says with the defection of four more government members, they are confident their candidate, Derek Sikua will be the next prime minister. The caretaker government's candidate, Patteson Oti will not say what his chances are of winning.
Presenter: Sam Seke
Speakers: Fred Fono, Opposition leader; Evan Wasuka, Honiara correspondent
SEKE: Under the Solomon Islands Constitution, the Prime Minister will be elected by members of parliament in a secret ballot conducted by the governor general.
The two candidates contesting the election are caretaker foreign affairs minister and long-time member for Temotu Nende, Patteson Oti and academic and M-P for North East Guadalcanal, Derek Sikua.
Because it will be a secret ballot vote, there's no telling who will vote for which candidate.
But members from both camps as they stand before the election, are not along regions or provincial lines.
However, Opposition Leader Fred Fono says they are confident of taking over government.
FONO: Of course we are ready, we are more than ready and we look forward to tomorrow to form the new government after the election of the Prime Minister.
SEKE: Now there are reports that you have secured two other members from the government side who have reportedly defected to the opposition again, is that right?
FONO: It's more than true, another two came in last night to the camp. So we're quite confident that we'll have an overwhelming majority.
SEKE: Now Mr Fono the election of the Prime Minister would be by secret ballot yes, so are you worried that some of your members might ...
FONO: No we're not worried, we're not worried at all, we're confident and we're ready to show to the nation that we are a responsible group to form the new government, even with a secret ballot yes we've already made our allegiance to support our candidate for the Prime Minister.
SEKE: Now is it true that you have been offered the post of Prime Minister by the caretaker government side if you joined them?
FONO: Yes I declined that offer because I'm a man of principle.
SEKE: As Evan Wasuka reports, Patteson Oti only spoke on policies in his news conference.
WASUKA: He spoke about what he called the determining factors that had played a big part in the removal of the Prime Minister Mannesah Sogavare and he was talking about reconciliation and RAMSI and Julian Moti case. Basically he just touched on how he would address these issues.
SEKE: And what did he say about the Julian Moti issue?
WASUKA: Well what he said was that if he came back in power his government would go into talks with Australia about the future of Julian Moti and he was wanting it to be more for judicial issues rather than a political one. So he was saying that with the Howard government the Sogavare government was under a lot of political pressure, but with the Kevin Rudd government he said he's hoping that there'd be less political pressure and more of the judiciary being involved in the talks with Julian Moti.
SEKE: And what did he say about the Regional Assistance Mission, RAMSI?
WASUKA: Well he said the problems with RAMSI were because of bad relations with the John Howard government and it had fed off onto the relations with RAMSI.
SEKE: Did he say anything about his chances of winning the election?
WASUKA: No he didn't touch on the elections, he basically wanted to, he dealt with the issues which he believed would be important if he became Prime Minister. And today it's not looking so good for Oti and the government side with two members defecting yesterday and there's reports that another two may have jumped ship overnight. So which pushes the opposition number up a bit further, while the government ahead of tomorrow's vote has dropped to about 17.
