Nauru election looms as MPs face uncertain future

Transcript

Election candidates will soon be finalised in Nauru, but there's still uncertainty over the future of suspended MPs.

Some have a court appearance after the July 9 election, while one has been left in limbo with no passport.

But new candidates are putting their hands up after the government backed down from a fee increase they say was a cynical attempt to bar them from standing.

Alex Perrottet reports.

Roland Kun is an opposition MP who's decided not to run in the upcoming election. The government suspended him from parliament two years ago and last year cancelled his passport. He hasn't been charged by police yet his applications for a new passport have been denied and he hasn't been able to visit his family overseas for more than a year. He says it has devastated his children.

ROLAND KUN: It is very very difficult for the children. With Katy and myself, we find it easier to cope but only because we understand the state of mind of the people we are dealing with and their motivations. We can unpack all that, the children cannot do that, they are struggling with the whole issue, they don't understand why it's happening and they're questioning whether I'm deliberately choosing to stay away from them and that kind of thing is difficult.

The government had implicated Roland Kun in a protest outside parliament last year, though he says he wasn't even there. Three other opposition MPs were charged over their alleged involvement, and the suspensions left only two others in parliament. They all deny the protest was violent and the government has failed to produce evidence it had promised would show it was in fact a riot. A former President, Sprent Dabwido, who's one of the suspended and charged MPs, says the Justice Minister, David Adeang, has a personal vendetta against Mr Kun, and is preventing him from travelling to Australia to give evidence to police about a bribery matter that implicates the minister.

SPRENT DABWIDO: Mr Adeang has done everything in his power to keep Mr Kun stuck here on the island so he doesn't fly out and the Australian Federal Police might have a chat with him, so it's a real messy thing and a real evil thing this minister is doing. That's cruel, that's not even politics, that's just rubbish.

A businessman, Lockley Denuga, was jailed for participating in the same protest, but like Roland Kun, he was never charged. He says the government has thankfully backtracked on its move to hike the candidate nomination fee from $100 to $2000 Australian dollars, setting it now at $500. But he says the government has employed other means to hold onto power, including offering free flights and giving away motorbikes.

LOCKLEY DENUGA: They offer like food stuffs, and bikes, motorbikes, and things like that have been offered and now they still are saying there's still more to come, so the campaign is still going on and even getting stronger, I don't know how much they are going to pour into the people to do that.

Lockley Denuga says his message to the people is that they can receive the gifts and still vote against the government. Sprent Dabwido, says their next court appearance is on August the 8th, a month after the election, and voters are concerned that if they re-elect the suspended MPs, it could be a waste.

SPRENT DABWIDO: The most common question I meet on my campaign trail is basically 'would I be able to stand?' And if I said yes, then what would happen if you do get in and then your court case dimisses you? And I said that's exactly what might happen.

If the MPs win their seats, they will lose them for good if they are found guilty and imprisoned for one year or more. But there are plenty of new candidates keen to run. Joseph Harris is putting his hand up for the Anetan constituency. He says the government has abused the rule of law, shut down dissenting voices and people have had enough, but many are not brave enough to speak out publicly.

JOSEPH HARRIS: I think there is a certain amount of fear, that would probably put them off voting truthfully. I think there is a certain amount of indecisiveness in this coming election but the thing is they really need to know that they have the power to vote for who they really want in parliament.

Lockley Denuga says he's heartened by the presence of election observers in the country. But the Commonwealth Secretariat observers' report last year was labelled "absolute rubbish" from opposition MPs, who were incensed that the observers didn't approach any of them for comment. One of the observers was Milner Tozaka, the Foreign Minister of Solomon Islands, who said at the time that it was a healthy sign the country had a chief justice who allowed the opposition MPs to be represented in court. But for months before the observers' visit, the government thwarted their legal representation by stalling the foreign lawyers' applications for legal admission and visas. The increased abuses prompted New Zealand to suspend its funding of Nauru's Justice department last September, while Australia has been criticised for its silence on the issue. The Nauru Government has declined our repeated requests for comment. The election will be held on Saturday July the 9th.