Solomon Islands political chess match begins – Manasseh Sogavare re-elected in East Choiseul, decribed as the first opening move to form the next government of the Solomon islands.

On Friday night, returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration after a day of counting according to their national broadcaster SIBC.

Officially the results are expected to be declared on Saturday morning by the Electoral Commission along with a host of others as the counting of the ballots continue across the country.

So far at least four members of Sogavare’s former cabinet have been re-elected. But it is still in the early days as the first upset of the elections also took out Silas Tausinga overnight for George Tema in the West New Georgia-Vona Vona constituency.

According to the Electoral Commission’s political party breakdown of the election results received so far, Sogavare’s Our Party is leading with 34 percent of votes counted, followed by the former opposition leader Matthew Wale’s Solomon Islands Democratic Party which has 26 percent.

However, the top three candidates round out about 23.4 percent of votes counted so far are independent candidates, and there is even a sharp drop-off to the fourth-placed People’s party at 8 percent.

Once all 50 members of Parliament have been officially elected, they will be whisked back from the provinces to the capital, Honiara where lobbying camps are already being set up in some of the capital’s hotels.

One political party leader and election candidate, whose result has yet to be declared, told one verified media source that, the first of these camps will be at the Honiara Hotel, and that coalition talks are already underway.