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Leading figures ::
James Mekab (President), Moses Biliki (Secretary General), Alloysio Maha’anua (Treasurer), Clement Kengava (Parliamentary Leader), Sir. Allan Kemakeza (Campaign Manager), Augustine Taneko, David Wote Sitai, Laurie Chan, Johnson Koli, Siriako Usa, the late Solomon Mamaloni and David Kausimae.
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Status ::
Seeking to build on its reputation as the party with the longest history in Solomon Islands. Party leader Clement Kengava is considered a serious contender for the role of prime minister if PAP can forge a role in a ruling coalition. One of the only a few real national political parties that draws its members from throughout the country. However, like many political parties in the Solomon Islands, membership is fluid and tends to reflect members changing their party affiliation following an election rather than voters’ choice.
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Links ::
PAP has a rich history of alliances with other political groupings from the pre-independence Governing Council days (1970-73). In more recent times, PAP was a member of Prime Minister Derek Sikua’s Coalition for National Unity and Rural Advancement (CNURA) government, which won power in a vote of no confidence against former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in December 2007. The CNURA coalition also included the Democratic Party (Matthew Wale), Nasnol Pati (Francis Billy Hilly), Solomon Islands Party for Rural Advancement (Job Dudley Tausinga, Gordon Darcy Lilo) and the Association of Independent Members. The defeat of the Constitution (Political Parties Amendment) Bill in April 2010 split the coalition. A number of former members of PAP have gone on to establish or align themselves with other parties in the lead up to the 2010 election. In April 2010, prominent Solomon Islands political figure Fred Fono announced he would be establishing his own party – the People’s Congress Party – and declared his intention to seek the prime ministership. Samuel Manetoali and Trevor Olovae have also split with PAP to form the Rural and Urban Party of Solomon Islands.
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Parliamentary seats ::
The following 8 MPs were aligned to PAP during the last parliament: Clement Kengava (North West Choiseul), Augustine Taneko (Shortlands), David Wote Sitai (East Makira), Fred Iro Fono (Central Kwara’ae), Johnson Koli (East Guadalcanal), Laurie Chan (West Guadalcanal), Sir Allan Kemakeza(Savo/ Russels), Siriako Usa (North West Guadalcanal).
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Policies and outlook ::
The party’s policy platform advocates national unity and peaceful co-existence for the people of Solomon Islands. The 2010 party campaign platform is built around a desire to see a radical shift from big to small central government with the epicentre of the nation’s development activities moved from Honiara to the provinces and rural communities. Key election commitments include:

• Call a referendum to put in place a new Constitution, which provides for a federation of states, and commence a programme of progressive federalism under which more powers and resources are transferred to the rural population.
• Ensure revenue sharing by compelling the national government to remit to provinces share of revenue derived from resources in provinces.
• Review the provisions of the Provincial Government Act, 1997 to assist provincial assemblies set up community governments in which chiefs and community leaders will be drawn into mainstream local government.
• Streamline the number of cabinet posts to save costs and to use the savings to fund capital works in the provinces and build houses for the large number of public servants who are not currently provided with accommodation by the government.
• Allocate $20 million towards the establishment and initial workings of the community governments in its first year of office.
• Seek to place additional 50,000 hectares of arable landing in selected parts of Solomon Islanders within the Torrent system where tribal groups will hold titles to registered estates.
• Reduce the level of disputes over customary land by 50% in fives years.
• Establish a new youth national youth service.
• Allocate $10 millions in the 2011 budget year to kick-start a women’s micro-finance scheme.
• Resurrect and implement the national tourism policy, with exemptions to customs and excise laws and immigration rules and adoption of an open sky policy to attract visitors.
• Develop land based fish processing plants and explore the idea of establishing a regional cannery in Solomon Islands to service the fisheries of smaller island states in the north and south Pacific.
• Provide special visas to investors who bring in prescribed levels of investment capital into the economy.
• Agricultural development will form the basis rural employment and food security and national revenue to be increased by improving cocoa and copra production.
• Review the nation’s electricity supplies with a special focus on rural electrification and renewable energy (wind-mills and mini-hydro power).
• Studies into the viability of Tina River hydro scheme will be prioritised and similar studies commissioned into other areas of potential mini hydro schemes near growth centres to be developed in provinces.

The party’s policy platform also gives ‘recognition’ to role of women and youth in governance and decision-making (groups that the party believes have been marginalised for too long) but does not have specific policy statements to indicate how this will be achieved.
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History ::
Popularly known as the oldest political party in Solomon Islands, the People’s Alliance Party (PAP), was founded in 1977 by the late Solomon Mamaloni and Sir David Kausimae through the merger of Mamaloni’s People’s Progress Party and Kausimae’s Rural Alliance Party. PAP was founded on the belief that a united Solomon Islands was essential for the country’s survival and advancement. State consolidation and nationhood were the driving forces behind the party’s political ideology within a programme of decentralisation and power sharing.

PAP won a majority of seats in the 1989 election forming government in its own right – a first for the Solomon Islands. Commentators noted that unaffiliated members declaring their allegiance to the party after the election brought about the parliamentary majority. Mamaloni was returned as Prime Minister on 28 March 1989, having previously held the position from August 1981 – November 1984. Despite commanding a parliamentary majority, the party lost control of government a year later when Mamaloni side-stepped an internal challenge to his leadership (orchestrated by party president David Kausimae) by resigning from the party and establishing a new coalition ‘Government of National Unity and

Reconciliation’ (GNUR) that included members of the opposition.
PAP returned to lead government under the direction of Sir Allan Kemakeza, the longest serving member of the party. Under his leadership PAP won 20 of 49 seats in the 2001 election, and Sir Allan went on to serve as Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. It was the first (and so far only) time a prime minister has served a full four-year term, and was achieved by surviving three motions of no confidence. He stood down as Prime Minister after PAP lost ten seats at the 2006 election and went on to serve as Deputy Speaker of the national parliament from April 2006 to December 2007, after which he was appointed Minister of Forestry by Prime Minister Derek Sikua. In early November 2007, Sir Allan was convicted of demanding money with menace, intimidation and larceny for which he eventually served a five-month prison sentence in 2008. In March Sir Allan announced his intention to contest the 2010 national elections and that he would be leading the Peoples Alliance Party as Campaign Manager. Clement Kengava succeeded Sir Allan as leader of the PAP parliamentary political party. Other party members in the last parliament included Fred Fono (who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Rural Development and Indigenous Affairs), Johnson Koli (who served as Minister of Health and Medical Services) and Augustine Taneko.

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Contact details ::
PO Box 821, Honiara
Solomon Islands

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Sources

_{People’s Alliance Party of Solomon Islands (2010) National Parliament General Elections 2010 Campaign Platform
‘PAP says it will build new homes for government’, Solomon Star, 17 March, 2010
‘Sir Allan a Free Man’, Solomon Times Online, 2 January, 2009
‘Sir Allan Kemakeza to contest Solomon’s election’, ABC Radio Australia, 3 March 2010
‘Solomons Deputy PM to run for top job’, ABC Radio Australia, 15 April 2010
Solomon Islands National Parliament website
Steeves, Jeffrey S. 1996. ‘Unbounded Politics in the Solomon Islands: Leadership and Party Alignments.’ Pacific Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1}