One dead in Solomons election violence

The 2006 Solomons election saw riots in Honiara's Chinatown. Photo / Greg Bowker

The Solomon Islands caretaker Prime Minister Derek Sikua is being briefed on the killing of one man and serious wounding of another during a brawl in Honiara in which the RAMSI security force fired shots.

The Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), which includes 37 New Zealand Defence Force personnel, confirmed early this morning one Solomon Islands national from Guadalcanal died while another was injured.

The cause of death was being investigated and the situation in Honiara was calm, a RAMSI spokesman said.

AAP understands a suspected election-related dispute among Titinge villagers, on Honiara's outskirts, escalated and when local police came under attack RAMSI was called in for back-up.

"The security forces had been called out by Solomon police in response to an incident involving people in a Honiara residential area attacking each other by throwing rocks," the spokesman said.

"Shots were fired by RAMSI security forces during the incident".

Solomons Police Commissioner Peter Marshall and top RAMSI officials were in meetings with Mr Sikua and other senior officials on Thursday morning.

Police had sealed off Titinge village as relatives and clansman were mourning the loss.

One Titinge villager told AAP: "RAMSI have guns, we had rocks,"

Elections are a volatile time for the Solomons, which saw the burning of Honiara's Chinatown in 2006 after the unpopular announcement of Snyder Rini as prime minister.

The multi-faceted RAMSI force has been on high alert during the election period, with ramped up patrols and security measures.

RAMSI has brought relative calm to the tiny Pacific nation after being deployed in 2003 to end years of ethnic tension, fighting and force land migrations.

While Australia leads RAMSI, it is a regional effort that includes troops from New Zealand and other countries like Tonga.

So far, election violence has been isolated with three minor incidents last weekend marring what was considered well-run polling.

All but one candidate has been called in the 50-seat parliament and now most MPs are in the capital Honiara for the "second election" whereby they each negotiate to form a coalition government that chooses the next prime minister.

- AAP