How Women Run: Female Candidates in the 2014 Solomon Islands Election

The Pacific Islands region has a history of low women’s representation in politics. Solomon Islands, a Melanesian state of just over half a million people, is no exception to this rule. At the national level, only two women had been elected to the Solomon Islands Parliament from independence in 1978 to 2014 – Hilda Kari, who was in Parliament from 1989 to 2001, and Vika Lusibaea, who won a by-election in 2012. In the 2014 general election, 26 women ran as candidates. This paper looks at the campaigns of female candidates in this election - how women candidates are perceived by themselves and others as different from male candidates; how they campaign; and how voters respond to women candidates. It draws on data from the Solomon Islands Domestic Election Observation project, including observer journals and reports from the observation teams; interviews with women candidates contesting the 2014 election; and in-depth participant observation of candidates in the West Are’Are electorate. It examines whether there are differences between the campaign strategies of men and women, and commonalities between those of successful and near-successful women candidates.