HONIARA (Pacnews) — Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare faces a vote of no confidence this week.
The no-confidence motion, filed by opposition MP William Haomae is likely to be moved in the nation’s parliament this coming Friday,
Sogavare comfortably survived a no-confidence vote in October last year when opposition leader Fred Fono put a motion.
Since his election last May, the prime minister has been embroiled in a series of diplomatic rows with Australia.
He has made it clear he wants reduced Australian influence in the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, which arrived in mid-2003 to restore law and order and good governance after years of ethnic unrest.
This month, Sogavare’s government easily defeated, 27 votes to 19, a motion calling for the scrapping of his plan to re-arm Solomons police.
The plan was opposed by RAMSI, by the parliamentary opposition and by women’s, church and business groups in the Solomons.
The premier of the nation’s Western Province has even threatened to seek independence if the re-arming plan goes ahead.
In past months, Sogavare has lost a number of senior MPs and party leaders from his government, including former Prime Ministers Bart Ulafa’alu and Francis Billy Hilly and prominent powerbroker Job Dudley Tausinga.