go on holiday
p. 11 · Read in the full issue
Vanuatu
Timakata allowed to go on holiday
The President of Vanuatu Fred Timakata was forced to go to court in January to win the right to take his annual holiday.
The Vanuatu government on the second weekend in January suddenly cancelled Timakata’s plans for a family holiday to Brisbane and Sydney.
Timakata, who ends his five-year term on January 31, complained he was not being treated with the respect he deserved.
The government was apparently concerned that the country’s Speaker of Parliament, who normally acts as head of state when a president is away, was already overseas.
On January 12 Timakata launched legal action in Vanuatu’s Supreme Court, arguing that the constitution allowed the Deputy Speaker to temporarily assume the job of head of state.
The court was saved from having to make a constitutional ruling when the speaker suddenly returned to Vanuatu last night, the President’s principal private secretary, Pakoa Maraki said.