27 Sep 2012

Solomon's leader again rules out support for reserved women's seats

4:26 pm on 27 September 2012

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister has again ruled out creating reserved seats for women in parliament.

The Solomon Star reports Gordon Darcy Lilo saying he prefers women entering Parliament through the normal electoral process and not by special consideration.

The newspaper reports womens organisations are pushing for the government to introduce 10 reserved seats through temporary special measures in the 2014 election.

Mr Lilo says his Government wants to advance temporary special measures from a development approach than rights approach.

He says it has started by allocating resources under the development budget through the Ministry of Youths and Womens Affairs.

He says women need to be empowered in rural constituencies and not in Honiara.