Sope's Shock Return

Vanuatu

Rebel politician reinstated ... but for how long? By David Robie

DESPITE the scenes of jubilation in Vila by supporters of rebel Vanuatu politician Barak Sope to celebrate his reinstatement to Parliament on October 21, Prime Minister Father Walter Lini’s govern ment is confident it still holds a trump card in the form of coming by elections. Though the Vanuatu Court of Appeal upheld the case of Sope and the rest of the so-called Gang of Five, it rejected reinstatement appeals by 18 sacked members of the opposi tion Union of Moderate Parties.

Diplomatic sources predict the rul ing Vanua’aku Pati could win up to nine seats on December 12 which, added to its current 21 seats, would give it a strong majority. VP sources are even more confident, suggesting the party could win as many as 11 or 12 seats. The party would need an extra 10 seats to give it the 31 needed to change the constitution and provide the means to oust Sope again.

Becoming consolidated as a key fi gure in the political equation is lawyer Kalkot Mataskelekele, one of the draf ters of the party’s own constitution, who is standing as a candidate for

Vila. If he wins (as is expected) he would become even more entrenched as a powerbroker through his posi tions as party chairman, vice-president and an MP. Like Sope, Mataskelekele is from I Lira Island, but he gave cru cial party evidence to the Supreme

Court hearing that upheld Sope’s

ousting from Parliament during the constitutional crisis last July.

As this issue went to press the UMP was in disarray over the by-elections: a letter by ousted Opposition Leader Maxime Carlot to the Lini Govern ment calling for a general election was

rejected, and though Carlot and key

supporters talked of a boycott, others opposed such a move and the party appeared headed for a split. Even Carlot’s brother Anders, an MP for Efate Rural, was unsympathetic while another MP, Willie Jimmy, warned he would stand as an independent if a boycott went ahead.

Sope and the four dissident ex government MPs William Edgell, Charles Godden, Anatole Lingtamat and Jimmy Simon were sacked from Parliament after they attempted to press a no-confidence motion in the

leadership of Father Lini.

However, on October 21 the three judge Court of Appeal, presided over by Chief Justice Cooke along with judges from Papua New Guinea and Tonga, found that the VP’s ‘rule of conduct’ barring no-confidence mo tions by fellow party members was un constitutional. The court also ruled that a section of the parliamentary 1983 Vacation of Seats Act, which in sists on continuous political party membership for MPs, breached the freedom of speech clauses of the con stitution and was thus invalid.

The court victory, coming on the heels of Sope’s formation of his new Melanesian Progressive Pati and a con troversial meeting with Fiji’s Major- General Sitiveni Rabuka, gave his sup

porters a major morale boost. Sope

had been blamed by the government for the Vila riots of May 16, which erupted after a land rights protest, and caused damage totalling more than SA2 million and one death. He was later sacked as Tourism and Transport Minister and stripped of the powerful post of party secretary general he had held since 1974. □