{"id":706245,"date":"2022-06-18T00:50:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T00:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=75329"},"modified":"2022-06-18T00:50:49","modified_gmt":"2022-06-18T00:50:49","slug":"vanuatu-pm-fails-to-push-through-constitutional-changes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/06\/18\/vanuatu-pm-fails-to-push-through-constitutional-changes-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanuatu PM fails to push through constitutional changes \u2013 again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/\"><em>RNZ Pacific<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Vanuatu Prime Minister has again failed to push through controversial constitutional changes.<\/p>\n<p>These include extending the term of Parliament, changing the definition of a Vanuatu citizen, and increasing the size of cabinet by nearly a third.<\/p>\n<p>A second session of Parliament yesterday was adjourned because of a lack of MPs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podcast.radionz.co.nz\/pacn\/dateline-20220617-0603-vanuatu_lawyers_concerned_with_govt_reforms-128.mp3\"><strong>LISTEN TO RNZ <\/strong><strong><em>PACIFIC WAVES<\/em>:<\/strong> Port Vila lawyer Gary Blake speaks to Don Wiseman on the constitutional crisis<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailypost.vu\/vanuatu_sports\/prime-minister-bob-loughman-failed-to-amend-the-constitution\/article_46cc3adf-8fa8-5c17-a3eb-fc6797f28c5f.html\">Prime Minister Bob Loughman failed to amend the constitution<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=Vanuatu+constitutional+crisis\">Other reports on the Vanuatu constitutional crisis<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75338\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75338\" style=\"width: 217px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-75338\" src=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-PM-Bob-Loughman-RNZ-300tall-217x300.png\" alt=\"Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-PM-Bob-Loughman-RNZ-300tall-217x300.png 217w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-PM-Bob-Loughman-RNZ-300tall.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75338\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman &#8230; facing opposition &#8211; even from his own Vanua&#8217;aku Pati &#8211; over proposed constitutional amendments. Image: RNZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prime Minister Bob Loughman wants to push through at least 15 constitutional changes which the opposition and some MPs in both his coalition and his own Vanua&#8217;aku Pati oppose.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday there were only 31 of the 52 MPs present.<\/p>\n<p>For a constitutional change a minimum of 34 MPs is needed.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, lawyers in Port Vila published a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/469232\/opposition-to-planned-vanuatu-constitutional-change-grows\">statement strongly criticising one of the planned constitutional<\/a> amendments.<\/p>\n<p>They say the government&#8217;s plan to put the Chief Justice&#8217;s position on a fixed-term contract undermines the credibility of that judicial office.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Costly process<br \/>\n<\/strong>The adjournment of the Vanuatu Parliament over the seven days to Friday cost the country&#8217;s taxpayers more than 3.7 million vatu (US$32,000).<\/p>\n<p>This is because MPs and cabinet ministers each get daily allowances when the Parliament is in session.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;You cannot just pull a paper from a rubbish bin and bring it to Parliament for approval because you are dealing with Vanuatu&#8217;s Constitution,&#8221; former prime minister Charlot Salwai said. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Bgq4z1XeXs\">https:\/\/t.co\/Bgq4z1XeXs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 RNZ Pacific (@RNZPacific) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RNZPacific\/status\/1537260050666123265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 16, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But on Friday a week ago the session was adjourned because many MPs had boycotted over government plans to push through the sweeping constitutional changes.<\/p>\n<p>Ati George Sokomanu, who was the country&#8217;s first president, is calling for more communication among the leaders and respect for the procedures required under the constitution to avoid wasting taxpayers&#8217; money.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75337\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75337\" style=\"width: 680px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-75337 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-Parliament-RNZ-680wide.png\" alt=\"The Vanuatu Parliament in Port Vila\" width=\"680\" height=\"509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-Parliament-RNZ-680wide.png 680w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-Parliament-RNZ-680wide-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-Parliament-RNZ-680wide-80x60.png 80w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-Parliament-RNZ-680wide-265x198.png 265w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Vanuatu-Parliament-RNZ-680wide-561x420.png 561w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75337\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Vanuatu Parliament in Port Vila &#8230; many MPs have boycotted the house over government plans to push through the sweeping constitutional changes. Image: Sally Round\/RNZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2022\/06\/18\/vanuatu-pm-fails-to-push-through-constitutional-changes-again\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RNZ Pacific The Vanuatu Prime Minister has again failed to push through controversial constitutional changes. These include extending the term of Parliament, changing the definition of a Vanuatu citizen, and increasing the size of cabinet by nearly a third. A second session of Parliament yesterday was adjourned because of a lack of MPs. LISTEN TO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50125,31276,1827,49884,5,12,1834,14,368,1743,50111,4623,50127,50132],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":706246,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706245\/revisions\/706246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}