And now an update on the political crisis in Vanuatu. Last week, we reported that the speaker of parliament there used a constitutional loophole to pardon himself and thirteen other MPs who had just been convicted on charges of bribery. As we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute - the pardons have now been reversed.
When the President is outside the country - Vanuatu's constitution directs the Speaker of Parliament to fill in. So with President Baldwin Lonsdale on a visit to Samoa, Speaker Marcellino Pipite exercised his powers as acting president to issue the pardons - and triggered outrage. On his return, President Lonsdale apologized for the debacle and promptly overturned the pardons.
Police then arrested eleven of the fourteen and three of their lawyers on a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The other three convicted MPs apparently did not attend the meeting where the decision to issue the pardons was made. All fourteen MPs are due back in court Thursday to be sentenced to as much as ten years in prison.
Those convicted include not just the speaker, but the deputy prime minister, the foreign minister and the ministers of Lands, Youth and Sports, Public Works and Climate Change. Earlier, the Finance minister pleaded guilty; he was not among those pardoned. By law, any member of parliament sentenced to more than two years must resign.
Earlier today, Vanuatu's Supreme Court heard two emergency applications. The first from opposition politicians seeking to uphold the President's decision, the second, from some of the convicted MPs seeking to restore their pardons.
Prime Minister Sato Kilman, has said nothing - except that it would be inappropriate to comment on a case still before the courts. He can expect a parliamentary vote to oust him shortly.
