Three Members of Vanuatu Parliament (MPs) have withdrawn their support for the motion of no-confidence, according to the Parliamentary Speakers’ Office.
These three MPs wrote letters Tuesday to inform Speaker Seoule Simeon of the withdrawal of their signatures from the motion against Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau.
But the Speaker’s Office spokesman said although they wrote a letter to withdraw their signatures, the withdrawal can only happen in the chamber when the parliament is summoned to meet to debate the motion.
A reliable government source told Daily Post that four other MPs are also expected to inform the speaker of their withdrawal from the motion before the parliament session.
The motion was signed by 29 MPs last week in the office of the Speaker of Parliament. The mover is the current Leader of Opposition, Bob Loughman and the second is his deputy, Marc Iati.
A government source said that with the three letters of withdrawal of support, the motion no longer has the required number of 27 MPs to pass.
According to the source, the government caucus reassured that Kalsakau is still commanding the majority of the members. There are 52 MPs but recently, the court has declared vacant one of the six seats for Malekula constituency.
Daily Post has been informed that the President of National United Party (NUP) and former Minister of Education, Bruno Leingkon, who is on medical treatment overseas, has already made clear his party’s position to the PM.
Leingkon was replaced on Sunday night by the President of Vanuatu National Party and MP for Torba Province, Christophe Emelee.
There are two MPs of NUP, Silas Bule for Pentecost Constituency and Ulrich Sumptoh for Port Vila Constituency. Both signed the motion.
This is the second motion of no confidence in just eight months of the reign of Kalsakau as PM.
The first motion was deposited in May this year during the First Ordinary Session. At that time, Opposition Leader Bob Loughman only needed nine signatures to deposit his motion and fish for the numbers in the floor. When Parliament met to debate the motion, Loughman stood up to withdraw it due to the lack of support of a basic majority of 27 MPs.
Contrary to the current motion, it will be debated during an extraordinary session with clear signatories of 29 MPs.
Political observers said that if Loughman is not able to replace the three MPs who withdrew their support from the motion then the opposition has no option but to withdraw its second motion.
They said that the other option is for the opposition to gain more time to fish for the numbers in the government’s camp by boycotting the session in order to establish the lack of a quorum.
If there is no quorum due to a boycott from the government or the opposition, the session will be adjourned for three working days. This means that parliament will meet next Wednesday if there is no quorum.
SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST/PACNEWS
