Government’s management of electoral reforms has been neglectful, Solomons Opposition leader Matthew Wale says.

Speaking today in Parliament on the Electoral Amendment Bill 2023, Wale said the Government has left these important amendments to the very last minute.

He said this was also the case in the last House when the current Electoral Act 2018 came to Parliament.

The Opposition Leader said it came at the last sitting of the last House and because of its lateness only minor changes can be made to the Bill.

“This is not good especially when we are dealing with important reforms that are critical to the proper functioning of our democracy,” he said.

Wale said it is unfortunate that these electoral reforms are moving too slowly.

He said it is important that elections must happen smoothly and that any Government at the beginning on each term must prioritise such reforms so that proper legislative actions can be taken.

Meanwhile, Wale says it is meaningless for the country to be without a legitimate Parliament for any period of time. 

He said now that Parliament is heading towards its dissolution, it is absurd to have a caretaker executive government in place but without a Parliament to supervise it.

“The current caretaker provisions were fit for times gone by, but are no longer appropriate for our times,” Wale said.

He said the Executive is derived from Parliament so without a Parliament, you cannot have an Executive with any legitimacy. 

Wale said this situation must be remedied. 

“Executive government must be able to make decisions at all times and not be in a lame-duck mode at any time. 

“And such decisions ought to be under the oversight of Parliament.”

Wale said in many jurisdictions, this means that Parliaments dissolve at the eve of elections.

In this case, he said a caretaker or transition period is from the elections to the day a new government is formed. 

“This is a much more preferable situation to our current situation,” he said.

Wale said similarly this should also be the case for provinces and the Honiara City.