HONIARA – Solomon Islands longest serving politician Job Dudley Tausinga has finally lost the North New Georgia Constituency — a seat he held for three decades.
He becomes the first major casualty in Wednesday’s polls, going down to a little-known John Dean Kuku, who contested as an independent.
Mr Kuku polled 1508 votes to dethrone Mr Tausinga, who held the seat since the third parliament in 1984.
Mr Tausinga won the seat in the 1984 election when it was first created and named North West New George. He has not lost the elections since.
In one of the previous elections, he stood unopposed.
His ousting was believed to be connected to the current rift within the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC), which saw Mr Tausinga on one side and his late brother and spiritual leader of CFC, Sir Ikan Rove, on the other.
CFC was founded by Mr Tausinga’s father Silas Eto.
