The Solomon Islands government will not be reserving ten special seats for women in its 50-seat parliament.
The decision has saddened Hilda Kari who served as the nation's only woman member of parliament from 1989 to 2001.
She says it is particularly concerning that the decision to drop the proposal for women's seats comes just as other plans gain momentum to expand the total number of representatives in government.
"They are talking about additional seats in the parliament going up to 76 and I am just staggered that they cannot consider ten of those seats to be reserved for women."
Hilda Kari says poverty, pressure from partners and fear are some of the factors behind women not being elected under the current system.
