PAC: Solomons opposition files motion to sack new PM

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-2006
PAC: Solomons opposition files motion to sack new PM

By Karen Michelmore

HONIARA, April 21 AAP - The newly formed Solomon Islands opposition party has filed
a motion to sack Prime Minister Snyder Rini.

The Solomon Islands parliament will sit for the first time on Monday after violent
mobs rampaged through the capital Honiara following the election of Mr Rini to the top
post by MPs.

Patterson Oti, from the newly formed opposition party, says two of the MPs who voted
for Mr Rini have now joined opposition ranks, and he is hopeful the no-confidence motion
will be successful when it is put to parliament, possibly on Wednesday or Thursday.

"We've filed a motion on Wednesday, a motion of no confidence in the prime minister,"

Mr Oti told AAP.

"We've filed it with the speaker of parliament.

"In the circumstances where the people are calling for the prime minister to resign
because of the non-acceptance of the outcome of the elections on Tuesday, the only avenue
constitutionally which we can use in supporting the view ... is through a vote of no confidence
in the prime minister and his government on the floor of parliament."

Mr Oti, the MP for Temotu Nede, was hopeful the resumption of parliament next week
- and the no-confidence motion - would bring calm to the violence-stricken city of Honiara.

"It's an avenue whereby you can diffuse the unruly behaviour of the public," he said.

"(You can) give some form of conciliation to the public, at least the due process of
democracy does still take place ... through the appropriate channels which (are) the constitution
and the parliamentary mechanisms that we currently operate under."

The opposition party - made up of several parties including the National Party, the
Solomon Islands Party for Rural Advancement (SIPRA), Lafari Party, the Solomon Islands
Democratic Party and independent MPs - was meeting this morning at a Honiara hotel to
decide their position on a new speaker to be elected by parliament on Monday.

Mr Oti said the opposition coalition now held 25 of the 50 votes, and were lobbying
others to join their ranks.

They need just one more vote to pass their no-confidence motion, after MPs Patrick
Vahoe and Trevor Olavae switched sides following the mayhem in Honiara, he said.

"We have two MPs who voted for the prime minister who have now changed position and
have joined ranks with what is now the opposition in parliament," Mr Oti said.

"Basically it is now 25-25 and we hope that the members of parliament ... will make
it their business to seriously consider their position in order to diffuse any further
escalation of the protests.

"They have to take sides with the current opposition to bring the government down."

Mr Oti said the "whole uprising would come to a stop" if the no-confidence motion was passed.

He said the violence was sad, uncalled for and "most of all unexpected".

"But I think the Solomon Islands has come to a stage where the general public has recognised
what has been going on over the years in terms of formation of governments," Mr Oti said.

"They have watched this process ... and I think come to a stage when in the last four
years it was so obvious that they could no longer accept.

"This regime is being put in place by interests which do not necessarily represent
the wider public interest."

AAP km/jjs/sd

KEYWORD: SOLOMONS OPPOSITION (PICS AVAILABLE)

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