EU — General Election in the Solomon Islands

State­ment by High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cather­ine Ash­ton on the Gen­er­al Elec­tion in the Solomon Islands
Cather­ine Ash­ton, the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy and Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Com­mis­sion, made the fol­low­ing state­ment today:

“In light of the 4 August Gen­er­al Elec­tion, I wel­come the strong com­mit­ment to peace and democ­ra­cy shown by the peo­ple of the Solomon Islands as they turned out in high num­bers dur­ing a calm polling day. I also would like to com­mend the Solomon Islands Elec­toral Com­mi­sion for the order­ly con­duct of the elec­tions, which took place in an open, trans­par­ent and com­pet­i­tive envi­ron­ment, respect­ing fun­da­men­tal free­doms. I trust that the count­ing and sub­se­quent elec­tion by Par­lia­ment of a new Prime Min­is­ter pro­ceeds in a sim­i­lar­ly peace­ful and pos­i­tive atmosphere.

The Euro­pean Union has a long and close rela­tion­ship with the Solomon Islands and remains engaged with the country’s effort to boost demo­c­ra­t­ic and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in the con­text of our polit­i­cal dia­logue and in line with the EU-Solomon Islands coun­try strat­e­gy. The con­clu­sions of the EU Elec­toral Expert Mis­sion, which was field­ed before and dur­ing the elec­tions, could be a use­ful basis to under­take fur­ther coop­er­a­tion in the elec­toral field, espe­cial­ly with regard to the improve­ment of the vot­er reg­is­tra­tion system.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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