16 MPs suspended for alleged corruption
by Jean-Baptiste CALO
The Parliament of Vanuatu has suspended 16 MPs from the Opposition Block due to allegations of corruption on Tuesday November 25th, 2014.
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| The leader of Opposition, Mr. Moana Carcasses Kalosil |
The motion was tabled by the Prime Minister Joe Natuman and was put to vote by show of hands.
It resulted with 27 votes for, 22 against and 1 abstention.
While moving the motion in the Parliament, Prime Minister Joe Natuman said that the 16 MPs have allegedly received bribes from the leader of the Opposition, Moana Carcasses Kalosil in form of loans at a local bank.
The statement was immediately refuted by Mr Carcasses, who reiterated that as we are approaching the end of the year, it is a normal practice in Vanuatu to see MPs requesting loans to cater for the requests of their electorate.
Before the motion was put to vote by the Speaker of Parliament, a lot of statements were made from both sides of the Chamber.
M. Natuman explained that the motion was lodged by the government after they discovered that the leader of Opposition has allegedly proposed substantial amount of loans through a local bank to 16 members of Parliament.
He stated that it was a clear act of bribery and that it was high time that the people involved in such corruptible practices are reprimanded.
He went on saying that the 16 members of Parliament are free to take the matter up to the Supreme Court afterwards, if they wish to question the legality of their suspension from the Parliament.
The Santo MP, Marcelino Pipite warned the government that: "the suspension of the 16 MPs would be a blatant blow to their constitutional rights. He point out that most of those MPs have been elected by an average of more than 800 voters in their respective constituencies.
The leader of Opposition and of the Green Confederation, Moana Carcasses Kalosil, the leader of the Union of Moderate Party (UMP), Serge Vohor, Tony Wright (Port-Vila MP), Pascal Iauko (MP for Tanna), Marcelino Pipite (MP for Santo) , Paul Telukluk (Malekula MP), Jean-Yves Chabod (Port-Vila MP) and 9 other MPs from the Opposition block were suspended on Tuesday 25 November for the rest of the current budget session including the first 2015 session of Parliament scheduled for March-April 2015.
The Opposition Leader, Moana Carcasses and his deputy, veteran politician, Serge Vohor claimed in their respective statements in the Parliament Chamber that more than 4 government backbenchers have also received a loan from Mr Carcasses.
And they requested that to be fair, the government side should also sanction those MPs within their ranks who have also presumably obtained loans from the Opposition leader.
On the other hand, various leaders from the government side emphasised that there are already precedences with the suspension of the former Efate MP, Maxime Carlo Korman and the former speaker of Parliament and current Minister of Health, George Wells, few years ago.
In both cases previously mentioned, the Supreme Court of Vanuatu has clearly acknowledged the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution between the executive, the legislative and judiciary. And it has equally recognised through its verdicts, in both cases, the fact that the National Parliament has the power to suspend an elected member of Parliament as long as the motion is voted with the backing of the majority of 52 elected members of Parliament.
The motion to suspend the 16 MPs was the only subject debated by the Parliament on Tuesday afternoon.
Vanuatu Times was informed that the Opposition lodged a constitutional application before the Supreme Court to challenge the legality of the suspension of the 16 elected members of Parliament.
