Trades Minister removed from office

Prime Minister (PM) Charlot Salwai yesterday removed Bob Loughman from his position as Minister for Trades, Tourism, and Ni-Vanuatu Business.

Loughman’s removal is based on sub-article 42 of the Constitution, which allows the PM to appoint and remove cabinet members at any time.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Prime Minister’s Office, Hilaire Bule, confirmed the removal but did not know the reason behind it.

PM Salwai signed Loughman’s removal order before departing for the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) yesterday.

According to PRO Bule, the Minister of Finance and Economic Management, Johnny Koanapo, is serving as Acting PM until Salwai returns. A replacement for Loughman has yet to be announced.

Recently, Loughman, the Minister for Trades and Member of Parliament (MP) for Tanna, announced his intention to challenge the election of his colleague, MP Koanapo, for the position of Vanua’aku Pati (VP) President in court.

Loughman is the former VP President. He, along with the Minister of Education and MP for Santo Rural, Samson Samsen, and Koanapo, were brought into the Salwai Government earlier this year to maintain support.

Loughman was removed just a day after declaring his intention to challenge the election of Minister Koanapo as VP President and the VP National Executive.

news@dailypost.vu

Opposition fails to topple gov’t, still claims ‘majority’

The Opposition failed to topple the government in the no confidence session yesterday, as the Speaker of Parliament declared the session adjourned due to no quorum.

This clearly confirmed that neither side has an absolute majority in parliament.

Only 25 MPs from the Opposition side were present in the parliament resulting in the lack of quorum and the failure of the opposition to oust Prime Minister (PM) as they claimed in their press conference at their camp in Pango.

Yesterday, Opposition Bob Loughman said again that they will form the new coalition government next week. This can only happen if they have a majority of 27 MPs.

With the appointment of three signatories of the motion as state ministers the government has prevented the opposition to get a majority support.

As predicted by the Daily Post on Tuesday, Vanuatu is now in a political impasse where the bills could not be passed and seeking dissolution is not possible. The failure in parliament to reach a quorum yesterday means this situation will remain until next Wednesday.

The political crisis began when Loughman deposited his second motion with 29 signatures last Thursday.  The numbers shifted from Kalsakau to Loughman.

During the last session, Opposition benefited from the support of only 15 MPs. Since the motion deposited there were movement of MPs to both sides.

Even after the dissolution yesterday, Loughman was still claiming that he has the support of 29 MPs knowing that some of the signatories have defected from the opposition camp to join the government side.

PM Kalsakau said in a press conference yesterday with Presidents of political parties in government that they decided not to boycott the session to demonstrate that Loughman had no simple majority.

Kalsakau said he is confident he will defeat the motion.

 President of the Ground and Justice Party (GJP), Ralph Regenvanu rejected Loughman’s call for a session to debate the motion without having the required numbers.

Regenvanu said that during his reign as an Opposition Leader he has successfully deposited a motion in 2022 which resulted in the Council of Ministers requesting a dissolution.

President of the Reunification Movement of Change and one of the former PM, Charlot Salwai said Vanuatu is now facing a political crisis and is difficult to form a new government.

He appealed to the MPs to make national interest their priority.

President of the Leaders Party, Jotham Napat reminded all members of parliament that Kalsakau was elected unopposed and why suddenly after just eight months the opposition wants a new government to be elected.

Deputy PM and Foreign Affairs Minister, Matai Seremaiah during the press conference labelled the minimum wage increase which is one of the arguments of the motion as baseless.

 Matai said the Opposition MPs are against the increase of salaries of workers who elected them but want an increase of their allowances to VT15 million.

 The Deputy Prime Minister said that the political impasse will be solved before the parliament session next week

DPM Loughman leads delegation to 75th ESCAP Meeting

The seventy-fifth session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) held its meeting this year from 27th – 31st of May, 2019.

The Commission session is held annually for both the ministerial and the senior official’s level to discuss and decide on important issues pertaining to inclusive and sustainable economic and social development in the Asia and the Pacific region.

This year, Vanuatu’s delegation to the 75th Session of the ESCAP was led by the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and the Minister of Tourism, Commerce, Trades and Ni Vanuatu Business, Bob Loughman.

The delegation consist of the First Political Adviser to the Ministry of Trades Mr Simil Johnson; DG Roy Mickey Joy from the Ministry of Trades; Mr Albert James, Policy Auditor at the Department of Strategic Planning and Aid Coordination (DSPPAC) Prime Minister’s Office; Mr Mathieu Hervillard, Vanuatu’s Trade Commissioner to Thailand; and Mr Sanlan William, Head of United Nations and Economic Relations Division in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Theme for this year’s session was, “Empowering people and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality”.

Vanuatu was privileged to be part of the different side events during the commission session, one of which was organised by the Government of Japan, ESCAP and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) to discuss on “Community empowerment and participatory policy planning to reduce tsunami and water-related Disaster risk”.

DPM Loughman and other high-level representatives from Japan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Indonesia, and the Philippines discussed failures and success in their own countries in dealing with disaster affected populations.

The Deputy Prime Minister gave Vanuatu’s perspective on the issue by emphasising that small island nations such as Vanuatu are at the “frontline of the battle against climate induced and water related disasters”.

The Deputy PM went further to reiterate that “Vanuatu and other small island countries not only dependent on climate change reduction, but also on the actions of the global community who can help build a bottom up approach to ensuring no one is left behind.”

On Monday the 14th of May, DPM Loughman delivered Vanuatu’s country statement, stressing similarities between the National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP), also known as 2030: The People’s Plan and the ESCAP’s theme for this year’s session and briefly highlighting some of the work Vanuatu has put in place in the areas of inclusivity & equality, education, climate change, justice and economy, keeping with this year’s ESCAP theme.

During the 75th Commission session, the Deputy Prime Minister also conducted a courtesy call to Mrs. Armida Alisjahbana, the United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of UNESCAP, where the Executive Secretary reiterated her support for Vanuatu’s preparations for the Samoa Pathway midterm review later this year.

The delegation also stressed that despite Vanuatu’s imminent graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status in 2020, Vanuatu still seeks to work with donor partners and the international community to ensure smooth transition particularly with issues such as trade, capacity development and diversification of production.

The 75th annual Commission Session of ESCAP was an important opportunity for Vanuatu to share experiences with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region on our shared progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality in the era of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

news@dailypost.vu

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