More than 60 percent of the national results of the Solomon Islands election are now in.

So far, two female MPs have been elected and three former prime ministers may be in the running for the top job.

Counting is still progressing at a snail’s pace — partly because it took so long to transport ballot boxes from remote communities to counting centres, but also because the country is conducting its first joint election of provincial and national candidates.

• READ MORE: Other Solomon Islands elections reports

As of Monday morning, Our Party, the largest single grouping in the last coalition government, was in the lead having won 32 percent of counted votes, followed closely by independent MPs on 31 percent.

Then came the Development Party on just under 17 percent, with the United Party rounding out the top four on 6.1 percent.

Chief Electoral Officer Jasper Anisi said that more than half of all national ballots had been counted.

“For parliamentary elections 68 percent — that is what they have already declared. Provincial assembly 86 and HCC [Honiara City Council] 82 percent.”

Seeking ‘good government’
RNZ Pacific spoke with some voters who asked to remain anonymous about their expectations.

“I want a good government, a good leader for us so that we can see some good,” one said.

“Like when there is a good government, our kids will have jobs. I won’t have to come to market all the time until I grow old.”

Another said: “I want a new prime minister for our economy so that it is good. Because the last prime minister or government, our economy is not good.”

But it is still early days as far as coalition negotiations.

In terms of potential leaders, there are several former prime ministers already among those returning to the house, including incumbent Manasseh Sogavare, Rick Hou and potentially Gordon Darcy Lilo, who is leading the count by a large margin in his electorate.

Meanwhile, incumbent MP Freda Soria Comua and independent candidate Choylin Douglas are the first two women candidates to officially make it through in this election, while another independent candidate, Cathy Nori, has been mentioned in provisional results.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The high-stress nature of working in politics is increasingly taking a toll on staff and politicians. But an additional threat to the personal wellbeing and safety of politicians resides outside Parliament, and the threat is ubiquitous: online violence against women MPs.

Since her election in 2017, Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman has been subject to persistent online violence.

Ghahraman’s resignation following allegations of shoplifting exposes the toll sustained online violence can have on a person’s mental health.

• READ MORE: New Zealand newsrooms saw the rise of ‘mob censorship’ in 2023, as journalists faced a barrage of abuse
• Analysis shows horrifying extent of abuse sent to women MPs via Twitter
• How misogyny, narcissism and a desperate need for power make men abuse women online

In an interview with Vice in 2018, Ghahraman expressed how the online abuse was overwhelming and questioned how long she would continue in Parliament.

Resigning in 2024, Ghahraman said in a statement:

it is clear to me that my mental health is being badly affected by the stresses relating to my work

and

the best thing for my mental health is to resign as a Member of Parliament.

Ghahraman is not alone in receiving torrents of online abuse. Many other New Zealand women MPs have also been targeted, including former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, National MP Nicola Willis and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

Words can not only hurt, but they can seriously endanger a person’s wellbeing.

Online violence against women MPs, particularly against women of colour, is a concerning global trend. In an Australian study, women MPs were found to be disproportionately targeted by public threats, particularly facing higher rates of online threats involving sexual violence and racist remarks.

Similar online threats face women MPs in the United Kingdom. Studies show that women of colour receive more intense abuse.

Male politicians are also subject to online violence. But when directed at women the violence frequently exhibits a misogynistic character, encompassing derogatory gender-specific language and menacing sexualised threats, constituting gender-based violence.

Golriz Ghahraman’s exit from politics shows the toll of online bullying on female MPs

Many say it’s become overwhelming, writes @LegallyFeminist (@ucnz).https://t.co/PSsG9OBCii

— The Conversation – Australia + New Zealand (@ConversationEDU) January 19, 2024

Our legal framework is not enough
New Zealand’s current legal framework is not well equipped to respond to the kind of online violence experienced by women MPs like Ghahraman.

The Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 is designed to address online harassment by a single known perpetrator. But the most distressing kind of abuse comes from the sheer number of violent commentators, most of whom are unknown to the victim or intentionally anonymous.

This includes “mob style” attacks, where large numbers of perpetrators coordinate efforts to harass, threaten, or intimidate their target.

Without legal recourse, women MPs have two options — tolerate the torrent of abuse, or resign. Both of these options endanger representative democracy.

Putting up with abuse may mean serious impacts on mental health and personal safety. It may also have a chilling effect on what topics women MPs choose to speak about publicly. Resigning means losing important representation of diverse perspectives, especially from minorities.

Having to tolerate the abuse is a breach of the right to be free from gender-based violence. Being forced to resign because of it also breaches women’s rights to participate in politics. Therefore, the government has duties under international human rights law to prevent, respond and redress online violence against women.

“More than 70 national elections are scheduled for 2024. But one group is likely to be significantly under-represented: women. A major reason is the disproportionate amount of abuse female politicians and candidates receive online.”https://t.co/SuPn36zLb4

— Indo-Pacific Defense FORUM (@IPDefenseForum) January 12, 2024

Steps the government can take
United Nations human rights bodies provide some guidance for measures the government could implement to fulfil their obligations and safeguard women’s human rights online.

As one of the drivers of online violence against women MPs is prevailing patriarchal attitudes, the government’s first step should be to correctly label the behaviour: gender-based violence.

Calling online harassment “trolling” or “cyberbullying” downplays the harm and risks normalising the behaviour. “Gender-based violence” reflects the systemic nature of the abuse.

Secondly, the government should urgently review the Harmful Digital Communication Act. The legislation is now nine years old and should be updated to reflect the harmful online behaviour of the 2020s, such as targeted mob-style attacks.

New Zealand is also now out of step with other countries. Australia, the UK and the European Union have all recently strengthened their laws to tackle harmful online content.

These new laws focus on holding big tech companies accountable and encourage cooperation between the government, online platforms and civil society. Greater collaboration, alongside enforcement mechanisms, is essential to address systemic issues like gender-based violence.

Thirdly, given the increasing scale of online violence, the government should ensure adequate resourcing for police to investigate serious incidents. Resources should also be made available for social media moderation among all MPs and training in online safety.

More than ever, words have the power to break people and democracies. It is now the urgent task of the government to fulfil its legal obligations toward women MPs.

Dr Cassandra Mudgway is senior lecturer in law, University of Canterbury. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

The 142 women running in the Papua New Guinea election are hoping to prove that the PNG Parliament is no longer a male-dominated world.

They face an almighty struggle given only seven women have ever won seats there before.

But when the three weeks of polling get underway on July 2 these women are determined and hopeful of entering PNG’s Parliament.

• READ MORE: Other PNG general election reports

They are contesting alongside 3357 men for the 118 seats in Parliament.

A number of them are in seats with more than three dozen male rivals.

For years there’s been talk of reserving seats for women, but this has so far come to nothing.

Through it, all the women have remained indomitable — people like Julie Soso, who first stood in the Eastern Highlands regional seat in 1997 and has contested every election since.

She won in 2012 and wants back in to complete unfinished business.

Pushed for hospital upgrade
As the governor of Eastern Highlands, in that period 2012 to 2017, Soso had pushed for a hospital upgrade in Goroka, giving it diagnostic capability.

This went ahead but she said since the change of government in 2017, nothing has happened — the machines paid for by foreign donors lie idle and no staff have been hired to operate them.

Soso wants the machinery in use and helping detect diseases like cancer.

“We need to have specialist doctors to diagnose them and if surgeries need to be done upon them it’s got to be within our own hospital,” she said.

“So there was a dream, there was a vision, and then, after the Eastern Highlands changed government the project stood still.”

Matilda Koma is standing against 37 men in the Goilala Open seat in Central Province.

Koma has stood four times before in the Goilala seat but feels this time she has the support to get her over the line.

Deteriorating infrastructure
If she got elected she has a clear idea of what she wants to do, starting with the rehabilitation of the deteriorating infrastructure in the district.

“Like bridges, roads and even all those building structures at every mission and government station, kind of running down,” Koma said.

“The basic services are also missing. Health and education are suffering because there are hardly any aid posts. The hospitals are not in running condition, and the drugs — supply of medicines — is just not consistent.”

Oro Province in Papua New Guinea has high-quality soils and can produce great organic food but people cannot get it to market because the infrastructure is lacking.

That is the view of Jean Eparo, who is standing in next month’s election for the Oro regional seat.

Eparo, who is married to the governor of PNG’s National Capital District, Powes Parkop, said that if she got the job her immediate focus would be on improving transport infrastructure.

“Not only roads but all the other transportation. Bridges — they’re not very well maintained, and then you have people who travel by small outboard motors, and that is very risky, so we have got to make that safe and a bit less risky for people. And then of course our road connections, they are also very bad,” she said.

Enough backing
As a veteran of two earlier campaigns, Eparo believes she now has enough backing to topple Gary Juffa who has held the seat for 10 years.

Delilah Gore, who is running in the Sohe Open in Oro Province, won the seat in 2012, became a cabinet minister, then lost the seat in 2017.

She said that loss still hurts, “that shouldn’t have happened because I did my best, the very best I could. But right now I can have reactions from people. A lot of people are telling me I have done well in the last five years – the voters still couldn’t believe I lost the seat, so I am having a lot of support right now. I am confident of coming back again.”

Along with another profile candidate we heard from in an earlier programme, Dulciana Somare Brash, the daughter of PNG’s first prime minister, who is standing in the Angoram Open, these women are confident they will do well.

Hopefully, for at least some of them, that will be the case.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.