Community leaders of West Kwara'ae constituency in Malaita Province have called on their Member of Parliament, Mr. Sam Iduri, to rejoin the government for fear over the possible collapse of development projects in the constituency.
Mr. Iduri defected to the Opposition along with nine other ministers three weeks ago in an attempt to unseat Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.The former Minister of Peace and Reconciliation was reportedly being kept under constant tight security at the Honiara Hotel where members of the Opposition group are politically barricaded.
West Kwara'ae Community Spokesperson, fifty eight year-old Benjamin Ladoa said the defection of Mr. Iduri casts many doubts on current government-funded development projects in the area.
Mr. Ladoa cited the Auluta Basin Palm Oil project as one major development project likely to be abandoned if Mr. Iduri and other MPs from Malaita insisted to destabilize the present government's development aspirations for rural people.
"We fear that this major project will collapse if our MP failed to push our voice in the government decisions," he said.
"The best way to avoid this problem is to have our leader back in the present government," added Mr. Ladoa.
The Auluta Palm Oil Project covers an area combining three Malaita constituencies including West Kwara'ae, Fataleka and East Malaita - it is expected to improve rural standards of living once fully implemented.
Mr. Iduri and MP for Fataleka, Steve Abana, deserted the government.
East Malaita is yet to have a parliamentarian following the death of former MP - the late Joses Sanga in May this year.
Mr. Ladoa, who led a group of West Kwara'ae leader's to Honiara in an attempt to convince their leader to rejoin the government, said they are also very disappointed with relentless security excuses blocking them from meeting personally with Mr. Iduri at the Honiara Hotel.
He said it is sad that they are not given any chance to express their opinion to Mr. Iduri who is currently being barricaded at the hotel by certain political bodyguards.
"We are the rural people whom he represented and he must not be blocked in any way from meeting us," Ladoa disappointingly said. "We empowered him to serve us and not those people at the hotel."
Mr. Ladoa said they will continue to ask Mr. Iduri to humbly rejoin the government and if there is failure, they will take all appropriate actions to find a replacement.
Mr. Iduri could not be reached for comments to tell his voters why he left the Sogavare-led Grand Coalition for Change Government.
"We desperately want to hear his reasons and that can only be achieved if we have face to face dialogue," Ladoa said.
"We will not accept any reasons communicated to us through secondary sources," he added.
Malaita province has a total of 14 MPs, the present 48-member parliament of which 9 are in the Opposition, 3 remained with the government while two seats are currently vacant.