20 Dec 2010

Vanuatu opposition calls on Kilman to resign this week

2:39 pm on 20 December 2010

The Vanuatu opposition has urged the prime minister, Sato Kilman, to resign before Friday's planned vote on a no-confidence motion.

The opposition leader, Edward Natapei, made the appeal after redepositing the motion last week and attaching letters from two MPs who deny the speaker's claim that they had withdrawn their support from it.

Mr Natapei says the new government's tactics to win back its MPs are not workable and if Mr Kilman does not resign and avoids the motion through the speaker's manoeuvres, Vanuatu will face a constitutional crisis when the parliament meets next year.

Mr Natapei says the numbers have shifted to the opposition and it will be difficult for the government to get the parliament to approve its bills next year.