Future Of Vanuatu PM Still Hangs In The Balance

by Mary Swire, Tax-news.com, Hong Kong

13 April 2001

During the last few weeks Vanuatu's Prime Minister, Barak Sope, has faced an uncertain future with the threat of a vote of no-confidence hanging over him by his government. PM Sope had lost majority support last month when the President, Father John Bani, refused his request to dissolve Parliament and call for new elections after Sope was widely criticised over efforts to set up a commission of inquiry into the country's fiscal state (there is a uni-cameral Parliament with a Westminster-model Prime Ministerial government and an elected President). Father Bani decided to leave the decision on forming a new government to members of Parliament and tabled a motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Sope.

The vote of no-confidence was due to take place last week but a new twist in the matter has seen parliamentary speaker, Paul Ren Tari Tari, postpone the motion because it came to light that the PM was in the middle of an appeal against the Supreme Court ruling ordering parliament to reconvene.

Some commentators have described PM Sope's decision to get tangled up in the Supreme Court appeal as a delaying tactic in an attempt to thwart the no-confidence vote from taking place to give him time to win back the support of one of his coalition partners, the Union of Moderate Parties, led by foreign minister Serge Vohor who has been very critical of the PM in recent weeks.

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