HONIARA: Solomon Islanders on Wednesday cast their ballots in the Pacific nation's first election since a major peacekeeping mission ended in 2017, with police describing the vote as "peaceful and orderly".
More than 1,600 officers patrolled polling places from the capital Honiara to remote island settlements, in a high-profile operation to ensure the ethnic tensions that once split the nation did not resurface.
The divisions led to rioting in a 2006 election and prompted the Australian-led military intervention, which ran from 2003 to 2017.
"We have reports coming in from the various provincial police forward commands, and all have reported no major incidents as the 1,040 polling stations," assistant commissioner Joseph Manelugu said.
He said police were strictly enforcing an alcohol ban and anyone who disturbed the peace or tried to interfere with the transportation of ballot boxes could expect "stern action".
More than 300 candidates will contest 50 parliamentary seats in the first-past-the-post election.
Most voters live in small rural communities and personal allegiances sway voters more than political parties, making elections difficult to predict.
The Australian National University's Development Policy Centre noted in a paper last year that politicians in the Solomons tend to have a high turnover rate, with up for 50 percent of incumbent lawmakers failing to gain re-election.
Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela aims to buck that trend and hold on to the job he claimed in late 2017 after toppling his predecessor in a no-confidence vote.
A former adviser to the World Bank, he has vowed to strengthen the finances of a country plagued by corruption, poor infrastructure and one of the weakest economies in the Pacific.
The Solomons, where only about 50 percent of the population has access to electricity, is heavily reliant on foreign aid and is one of the few countries to give Taiwan diplomatic recognition.
Houenipwela has hinted in the lead-up to the election that if re-elected he will look at switching allegiances to Taipei's arch-rival China, opening access to a potentially lucrative new source of aid.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be brought back into the fold and they have vied for diplomatic influence in the Pacific for decades.
The region's small island nations had become adept at playing the rivals off against one another.
Whether Houenipwela would carry out a switch remains to be seen -- he also told Taiwanese officials last month that the relationship was long term and "no pressure from others will break (it)".
Results of the election are not expected to be known for several days as they trickle in from far-flung island electorates.
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