“A third woman MP has been elected in Solomon Islands.
“Lillian Maefai registered an historic by-election win in the East Makira constituency, becoming the third woman to be elected to the current parliament and setting a new record for women's representation in the 50 member house.
“According to results released by the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission, early on Saturday morning, Mrs Maefai polled 3371 votes - over 2000 more than her nearest rival, Alfred Ghiro.
“For the Solomon Islands chief electoral officer Mose Saitala, the by-election itself was already special as it was the first time the commission had trialled simultaneously running a provincial election alongside a national by-election, he said.
“Mr Saitala said then to get such an historic result was the icing on the cake.
"We have elected for the first time the third woman into the national parliament. So we are having three sitting women MPs for the very first time in the Solomon Islands parliament. So that is a very, very satisfying result," he said.”
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