Paeniu voted out of PM post

TUVALU’S prime minister Bikenibeu Paeniu has been oust

ed by a surprise no-confidence vote of the 12-member parliament.

Tuvalu’s ambassador to Fiji, Enclc Sapoaga, confirmed that the vote taken April 14 was 7-4 against Paeniu, with speaker Tomu Sione abstaining. Sapoaga said there had been growing dissatisfaction with Pacniu’s leadership. When PIM went to press, Paeniu, an economist most recently re-elected in March 1998, was continuing as caretaker prime minister while parliamentarians prepared to elect his successor.

Paeniu became prime minister in 1994 after ousting his predecessor,

Kamuela Latasi, with a no confidence vote. Tuvalu is a

country of 9,000 people inhabiting nine small coral atolls 1,000 kilo metres north of Fiji, with a total land area of 27 square kilometres. It subsists on fishing licence fees, fishing, income from a national trust fund, earnings by seamen who work on foreign ships and foreign aid.

It also gets income believed to total more than US$l million (AUDS 1.58 million) annually from “sex chat” telephone calls operated by a foreign company authorised to use Tuvalu’s international country code number. (AP) ■