{"id":416671,"date":"2026-05-07T18:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/416671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T18:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:40:13","slug":"solomon-islands-pm-jeremiah-manele-ousted-after-just-over-two-years-in-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/416671\/","title":{"rendered":"Solomon Islands PM Jeremiah Manele ousted after just over two years in power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jeremiah<\/p>\n

\nJeremiah Manele was elected prime minister in May 2024.
\nPhoto: Screengrab \/ National Parliament of Solomon Islands\n<\/p>\n

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele has been ousted following a no-confidence vote in Honiara on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Manele was voted out by 26 votes to 22 in parliament. There were two absentees.<\/p>\n

Manele will remain in office and perform his normal duties until he is officially removed by the Governor-General Sir David Tiva Kapu.<\/p>\n

Parliament has been adjourned sine die to allow time for Sir David and parliament to organise the election of the new prime minister.<\/p>\n

Manele, who previously served as the country’s foreign minister, was elected prime minister on 2 May 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was the third challenge against Manele’s leadership – he had previously survived a motion of no confidence in April 2025 after six ministers and five government backbenchers walked away.<\/p>\n

It brings to an end a series of events that began on 15 March, with mass resignations from one of the key coalition parties<\/a> in Manele’s Government of National Unity (GNUT).<\/p>\n

Those members who defected from the coalition formed a new opposition group of 28 MPs in the 50-seat House. The defectors included 10 Cabinet ministers.<\/p>\n

Peoples First Party leader Frederick Kologeto told RNZ Pacific at the time that they had lost “trust within the government”.<\/p>\n

Manele had refused to convene parliament for weeks<\/a>, stating that he would do so only when the time was right, frustrating the opposition who said they had the numerical superiority to oust him.<\/p>\n

However, an Appeal Court ruling last Friday ended the political back-and-forth<\/a>, handing the prime minister a deadline to call parliament and face a leadership challenge.<\/p>\n

Before moving the no-confidence motion, MP for South Vella La Vella, Frederick Kologeto, called on the Prime Minister to resign immediately, citing the opposition’s numerical strength.<\/p>\n

But Manele responded by refusing by calling Kologeto “scared”, declaring he would resign but only after stating the reasons for the no-confidence motion against him.<\/p>\n

“I have accepted this responsibility not out of personal ambition, but on behalf of a majority of members who stand united with me today,” Kologeto said.<\/p>\n

“Party room negotiations and dialogues … proved to be futile. They were not only unhelpful, they were strategically unproductive.”<\/p>\n

Manele concedes<\/p>\n

In his final statement responding to fiery arguments made for and against the no-confidence motion, Manele warned the opposition leader to “be very careful of who you are dealing with and sitting next to” – a pointed shot at the defectors.<\/p>\n

He also claimed that the Appeal Court order raises serious questions about judicial overreach into that timing and management of parliamentary business.<\/p>\n

“[The Court of Appeal] decision, with the greatest respect to the court, risks cementing instability into our constitutional arrangements. It creates a pathway where any group of members who are unhappy with the government of the day can combine a motion of no confidence with court proceedings and then ask the judiciary to intervene in the timing and programme of parliament.”<\/p>\n

Manele also made a last ditch attempt to woo opposition MPs to switch sides, saying his government was “willing to accommodate any political party in forming a new government”.<\/p>\n

“We are willing to work with their party leaders, including on the issue, on the matter of leadership,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are willing to make that sacrifice so that the work that we have done over the past two years can continue our people and their needs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeremiah Manele was elected prime minister in May 2024. Photo: Screengrab \/ National Parliament of Solomon Islands Solomon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-416671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}