The Solomon Islands government has slammed an Australian offer to fund national elections next year, calling it an "assault" on its democracy and an attempt at foreign interference.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong earlier on Tuesday confirmed that Australia made an offer to help fund elections in Solomon Islands next year as the country's parliament debated a deeply controversial bill to defer the national poll until 2024.
The Solomon Islands opposition has accused Manasseh Sogavare's government of undermining democracy and trying to "bulldoze" through a constitutional amendment that would delay the election until after the Pacific Games in late 2023.
Mr Sogavare brought the bill forward for parliamentary debate this week and it could pass as early as Thursday, despite protests from the opposition and civil society groups.
The government argued it could not afford to hold both the Games and the election in the same year.
Last month, some opposition MPs appealed for Australia to step forward and offer to provide financial assistance to allow the poll to be held on schedule.
On Tuesday morning, Senator Wong confirmed the federal government had made a formal offer to help Solomon Islands hold the election next year, although she did not lay out the scope of that offer.
"We have made an offer of assistance, and it's a matter for Solomon Islands as to whether they respond and how they wish to respond," she told RN Breakfast.
But late on Tuesday, the Solomon Islands government issued an angry statement calling the offer "inappropriate" and scolding the Foreign Minister for making it public while MPs are debating the bill to delay the poll.
"The timing of the public media announcement by the Australian government is in effect a strategy to influence how Members of Parliament will vote on this Bill during the second reading on Thursday 8th September 2022," the statement says.
"This is an assault on our parliamentary democracy and is a direct interference by a foreign government into our domestic affairs.
"The Solomon Islands government has conveyed to the Australian government its concern on the conduct of bilateral relations via the media through the Australian High Commission Office in Honiara."
Earlier, Penny Wong denied that the government's offer was a direct response to the Solomon Islands opposition's appeal for an intervention, stressing that Australia already had a track record of backing recent elections in the Pacific Island country.
"No, this is because Australia has always historically supported democracy in Solomon Islands," she said.
"We have previously offered support and we are offering support again."
Opposition MP Peter Kenilorea Jr slammed Mr Sogavare's response, saying it proved the Prime Minister's real ambition was simply to hold on to power in Solomon Islands.
"The attack by Sogavare on what is a generous offer by Australia is unfortunate and extremely unhelpful. It has exposed Sogavare and his government's … selfish agenda to hold on to power," he told the ABC.
"We do not agree that Australia's offer amounts to foreign influence. When Australia gave $17 million for the Pacific Games it was heartily welcomed with smiles. But when an offer is made to support timely elections, it is seen differently.
"This simply highlights the schizophrenic nature of Sogavare's relationship with Australia. He will take what he feels is good for him and will brand an offer to help uphold our own constitution as foreign influence."
Australia has offered logistical and financial assistance for several recent elections, including the most recent contest in 2019.
The government has contributed $700,000 through the Australian Electoral Commission, as well as $5 million channelled through a United Nations initiative designed to strengthen electoral processes through to 2024.
But this offer makes it clear that Australia is willing to make a larger contribution over and above that to help Solomon Islands hold elections next year.
"If the election remains in 2023, we will support Solomon Islands to ensure it can successfully occur," a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
Still, the Foreign Minister and Australian diplomats are treading carefully.
'A sad moment indeed'
The election deferral is politically charged in Solomon Islands and some of Mr Sogavare's supporters have already taken to social media in the country accusing Australia of meddling in domestic politics.
The opposition says the Prime Minister remains intent on rushing the constitutional amendment through as quickly as possible, and are angry they won't get a chance to scrutinise the bill in the Bills and Legislation Committee.
The MP chairing the committee, John Maneniaru, lashed the process in parliament this morning, accusing the government of trashing democratic conventions.
"I am very disheartened, very disappointed indeed, by the fact the Prime Minister and [his party] have seen it fit [and] decided to hijack my Bills and Legislation Committee mandate and parliamentary responsibility," he said.
"This for me is a sad moment indeed … for our democracy. A fresh and new history has been pencilled down into our parliamentary democracy, [a] history that a deliberate decision was made to bulldoze into our parliamentary democracy process for the first time."
Tess Newton Cain from the Griffith Asia Institute's Pacific Hub said the furious response showed how "sensitive and delicate" the subject was in Solomon Islands.
"It's now becoming something of a flashpoint in the relationship between Solomon Islands and Australia," she said.
Dr Newton Cain said it was reasonable for Australia to make the offer to fund the 2023 elections, despite the risk of it stirring controversy.
"It was something of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation", she said.
"Making the offer probably wasn't a miscalculation but publicising it before the Sogavare government had made their own response … is obviously something that has really got up Mr Sogavare's nose."
"Having said that, as we've seen previously from Prime Minister Sogavare, he is very adept at taking each and every announcement and spinning it to suit his own narrative, and I think there's a bit of that going on now."
