Country name:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form:
Solomon Islands
local long form:
none
local short form:
Solomon Islands
former:
British Solomon Islands
Government type:
parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth realm
Capital:
name: Honiara
geographic coordinates:
9 26 S, 159 57 E
time difference:
UTC+11 (16 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions:
9 provinces and 1 capital territory*; Central, Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Honiara*, Isabel, Makira, Malaita, Rennell and Bellona, Temotu, Western
Independence:
7 July 1978 (from the UK)
National holiday:
Independence Day, 7 July (1978)
Constitution:
adopted 31 May 1978, effective 7 July 1978; amended several times, last in 2010 (2012)
Legal system:
mixed legal system of English common law and customary law
International law organization participation:
has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; non-party state to the ICCt
Suffrage:
21 years of age; universal
[see also: Suffrage country ranks ]
Executive branch:
chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor General Frank KABUI (since 7 July 2009)
head of government:
Prime Minister Gordon Darcy LILO (since 16 November 2011)
cabinet:
Cabinet consists of 20 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister from among the members of parliament
elections:
the monarchy is hereditary; governor general appointed by the monarch on the advice of parliament for up to five years (eligible for a second term); following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of a majority coalition usually elected prime minister by parliament; deputy prime minister appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister from among the members of parliament; Gordon Darcy LILO elected on 16 November 2011
Legislative branch:
unicameral National Parliament (50 seats; members elected from single-member constituencies by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections:
last held on 4 August 2010 (next to be held in 2014)
election results:
percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - SIDP 14, OUR 4, SIPRA 3, RDP 3, IDP 2, DDP 2, PCP 1, PFP 1, RUPP 1, SILP 1, SINP 1, independents 17
Judicial branch:
highest court(s): Court of Appeal (consists of the court president, and ex officio members to include the High Court chief justice and its puisne judges); High Court (consists of the chief justice and puisne judges as prescribed by the National Parliament)
judge selection and term of office:
Court of Appeal and High Court president, chief justices, and puisne judges appointed by the governor-general upon recommendation of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission, chaired by the chief justice to include 5 members, mostly judicial officials and legal professionals; all judges appointed until retirement at age 60
subordinate courts:
Magistrates' Courts; local courts; Customary Land Appeal Court
Political parties and leaders:
Direct Development Party or DDP [Dick HA'AMORI]
note: in general, Solomon Islands politics is characterized by fluid coalitions
Political pressure groups and leaders:
Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM)
note: these rival armed ethnic factions crippled the Solomon Islands in a wave of violence from 1999 to 2003
International organization participation:
ACP, ADB, AOSIS, C, EITI (candidate country), ESCAP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IOC, ITU, MIGA, OPCW, PIF, Sparteca, SPC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WTO
Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Collin David BECK (since 31 March 2004)
chancery:
800 Second Avenue, Suite 400L, New York, NY 10017
telephone:
[1] (212) 599-6192, 6193
FAX:
[1] (212) 661-8925
Diplomatic representation from the US:
the US does not have an embassy in the Solomon Islands; the US ambassador to Papua New Guinea, currently Ambassador Walter E. North, is accredited to the Solomon Islands
Flag description:
divided diagonally by a thin yellow stripe from the lower hoist-side corner; the upper triangle (hoist side) is blue with five white five-pointed stars arranged in an X pattern; the lower triangle is green; blue represents the ocean; green the land; and yellow sunshine; the five stars stand for the five main island groups of the Solomon Islands
National anthem:
name: "God Save Our Solomon Islands"
lyrics/music:
Panapasa BALEKANA and Matila BALEKANA/Panapasa BALEKANA
note:
adopted 1978
NOTE: 1) The information regarding Solomon Islands on this page is re-published from the 2014 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Solomon Islands Government 2014 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Solomon Islands Government 2014 should be addressed to the CIA.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order
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This page was last modified 06-Nov-14