OUR Party candidate Christopher Laore has failed to defend his Shortland Islands Constituency seat – losing it out to his nephew Junior Isikeli Vave.

Election officials declared Vave’s victory today – three days after the April 17 national polls. Vave contested as an independent candidate. 

Laore, who was looking forward to his fourth term, first entered parliament in March 2011 in a by-election. He went on to win his second term in the November 2014 elections, and a third in 2019. 

A physiotherapist by profession, he was a strong contender in this year’s elections, and predictions have it that he would defend the seat for him and OUR Party. 

But the out-going Home Affairs minister lost out to a fairly young leader, who emerged from ordinary life to claim the Shortlands seat. 

Our Party’s loss in the Shortlands however, was made up for in Gizo-Kolombangara, where Jimson Tanangada had reclaimed the seat. 

Tanangada first entered parliament in 2014 when he unseated former prime minister Gordon Darcy Lilo. But he lost the seat three years later in 2017 in an election petition case Lilo lodged. 

A by-election was held in 2018, which Tanangada’s wife Lanelle easily won. 

Lanelle went on to contest the seat again in 2019 and secured it for her first full term.  

In this year’s elections however, Lannell stepped down to allow her husband to contest the seat against six other candidates.