changes and continuities in the 2014 solomon islands elections [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
Setting the stage
2014 will be 9th general election since independence
Parliamentary Democracy
SMDP electoral system; 50 constituencies; approx 300,000 voters
Low winner vote shares & high turnover
Parties weak – candidate races
Bottom quartile of all states on quality of governance
Elections & Politics: what works & what doesn’t
<- formal process of elections has worked quite well
<- electioneering on the ground is more problematic
<- the country’s political economy deeply dysfunctional
Formal electoral processRecent elections
Good by standards of developing countries
Issues such as roll but logistics ok
&Little or no fraud in counting
process
Thanks to good balance of local & TA
2014
Usual challenges+
Biometric roll (so far so good)+
Roll scrutinizing+
Political parties integrity bill
ElectioneeringRecent elections
Although electoral process is good; electioneering fails to
meet ideal
Some coercion
Lots of vote buying
But: little violence
2014
More money than ever+
Attempts to take advantage of biometric system (card buying)
+New technology (cameras &
facebook)
Problems of political economyRecent decades
A strongly clientelist polity
Voter choices make sense but don’t aggregate
+
Logging money
=
Very poor governance2014
My guess is election outcomes very similar to
past
New social movements!
What does this mean for us?
The 2014 election won’t see a change Solomons’ politics (even if your favourite candidate becomes PM)
Long slow – domestic – march to better political governance in Solomons (no quick fixes)
But we can hold help hold the fort (electoral commission!)
And we need to learn more about things like vote buying, and new social movements.