16 Jun 2010

Nauru opposition hopes new look will help break deadlock

8:04 am on 16 June 2010

The opposition grouping in Nauru has remodelled itself as it prepares to contest the country's second general election in less than two months this Saturday.

The Nauru Parliament had been in a stalemate since elections in April, and last Friday the caretaker President Marcus Stephen called for a new poll, saying with Parliament not functioning financial bills couldn't be processed.

The last election returned the same 18 MPs, but a former Cabinet Minister, Baron Waqa, who now heads the opposition, is hoping a new look will encourage people to vote differently.

"We have decided we will present a fresh face to take us through all this and maybe something that people can have some kind of peace and trust in, you know, that it's not the same sort of arrangement between the same groups as before."