I would also like to voice my views on the current discussion that stemmed from that incident involving Dr George Manimu. This is unexpected from such a respected leader of his calibre, but as far as I know he also man-handled a local priest during the campaigning period in North Malaita when he stood for that constituency in the recent past.

I fully agree with Peter Nautaloa that there's a need to review our Electoral Act. In my opinion, I perceive most of the criteria listed by Peter as insignificant issues. To be a good leader does not necessarily require one to be a university graduate, nor a successful businessman/woman or whatever a person's profession is.

Some of the key issues that need attention are (i) How can we get rid of the community mindset and dependency on campaign incentives, benefits and promises? Alot of swing votes in our country nowadays rest on the core of hard cash or quick forms of benefits from aspiring candidates; (ii) how to successfully overcome competition against(presumably someone with good leadership qualities but lack financial status) current MPs and business people (some of which are currently corrupt) that have access to alot $$ (hundreds of thousands or millions from RCDF etc) and can deal hard cash during the campaign trail?; (iii) how to resolve the issue of candidates from other constituencies (either current or past holders of such positions) standing for people in another constituency?; (iv) how to set a "cap" on the acceptable and ethical number of candidates per constituency in order to at least get a 50% support for a candidate?; and (v) how to translate the so many millions of RCDF and other incentives into tangible initiatives at the community level?