A bye-election was held in the Shortlands

Shortlands (constituency)

Shortlands is a parliamentary constituency electing one representative to the National Parliament of Solomon Islands. It had a registered electorate of 2,556 in 2006...

constituency

Constituencies in Solomon Islands

There are 50 constituencies in Solomon Islands, each electing one Member of Parliament to the National Parliament. Elections are held every four years; the most recent took place on April 5, 2006...

 in Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

 on March 30, 2011. The election followed the death of MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Steve Laore

Steve Laore

Steve Laore was a Solomon Islands politician and member of parliament. Formerly a mechanic and businessman, and owner of a construction company, he defeated Augustine Taneko to become MP for the Shortlands constituency...

, an Independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

, who was elected to the seat for his first term in the general election on August 4, 2010

Solomon Islands general election, 2010

A general election was held in the Solomon Islands on 4 August 2010. In May 2010, Prime Minister Derek Sikua announced that the election would be held on 4 August, however, this announcement was deemed to be premature, as only the Governor General has the authority to announce the election date...

, and died just twenty-one days later, on August 25.

Laore had been a member of Prime Minister Danny Philip

Danny Philip

Danny Philip is a politician and diplomat from the Solomon Islands. He is the current Prime Minister, who came into office after the 2010 general election. He served as foreign minister from 1995 to 1996 and from July 2000 to June 2001...

's parliamentary majority. When the date for the bye-election was set, in mid-February, Philip was facing the threat of a motion of no confidence

Motion of no confidence

A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion whose passing would demonstrate to the head of state that the elected parliament no longer has confidence in the appointed government.-Overview:Typically, when a parliament passes a vote of no...

, seemingly having narrowly lost his majority in Parliament. Simultaneously, it was announced Parliament would reconvene on March 28, just prior to the election of Laore's successor, with expectations that a vote would be held on a motion of no confidence.

There were four candidates. Christopher Laore

Christopher Laore

Christopher Laore is a Solomon Islands politician.A physiotherapist, he worked as Director of Rehabilitation Services at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara. In August 2010, his brother Steve Laore was elected first time Member of Parliament for the constituency of Shortlands, in the Western...

, brother of Steve Laore, was elected with 1353 votes. Augustine Taneko

Augustine Taneko

Augustine Taneko was a member of the National Parliament of the Solomon Islands. He lives in Shortlands, in the Western Province, and was first elected in 2001. He was replaced by Steve Laore.-References:*...

, a former Member of Parliament, received 731. Pellion Buare obtained 111, while Joseph Isand Pitu received a single vote.