Choiseul premier eyes Bougainville switch

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The Premier of Choiseul Province Harrison Pitakaka has made his feelings known—sounding the alarm of his province’s intention to join the Autonomous Region of Bougainville by 2027.

Choiseul is in the western part of the country, close to the Bougainville southern border with the Solomon Islands.

His pro Bougainville switch comments was made when he commented on a news thread on the Opposition MPs’ visit to the Western Province on Tuesday.

The Opposition Leader Matthew Wale and his team is in Gizo where he said the Group’s visit was purposely to dialogue with key stakeholders including provincial governments, civil societies, identified communities and some of the provinces major national project sites.

“We took the responsibility to be here to hear first hand the challenges faced by Western province and how we can better advocate for the province at the national level,” he said.

But Premier Pitakaka clearly showed his disappointment describing it as “unfair”.

It was not clear what triggered his comments but he claimed it was unfair that some provinces are contributing to the national basket which benefit others and not those that contributed.

In his comment on SBMOnline, Pitakaka scribed that Temotu & Choiseul provinces will fast track a unified quest for national cessation and seek a possible annexation with Vanuatu & ARB.

He added that he had already started few consultations with Temotu Provincial Premier last year.

When asked by SBMOnline tonight on whether he was thinking about the cessation issue for some time, he replied: “We are working on that line. Much has been felt about it with my people.It takes the right time to pull the trigger,” he emphasized.

He further stated that the State Govt/review of the current Provincial Government Assembly could be very unsuitable on political alternatives.

“We need to explore something else,” he said.

The premier’s comment comes amidst strong push from Bougainville for independence in the next few years following latest opposition from the PNG government towards the Autonomous Region desire for self-governance.