Solomon Island MPs

The governor general, Sir Frank Kabui, announced the date yesterday and also informed MPs that nominations for the top job opened today and would close on Thursday.

Each prime ministerial candidate must be nominated by four MPs.

MPs cast secret ballots in the vote which will start at 9:30am at parliament.

In order to win, a candidate must secure an absolute majority of the 50 votes.

If there are several candidates and an absolute majority cannot be achieved voting will continue by rounds of elimination.

The Island Sun newspaper reported MPs were given a 3.5 percent pay increase effective from the beginning of this month by the Parliamentary Entitlements Commission.

The commission told the paper the increase was fair given that MPs missed out on one in 2016, the same year the commission gave the MPs tax free salaries.

The chairperson of Transparency Solomon Islands, Ruth Liloqula, said her organisation had crunched the numbers and the latest pay rise negates the tax.