Briefs

A hung Parliament in the Cook Islands, voters prepare (or a by-election RAROTONGA - The future of the Cook Islands government hinges on an upcom

ing by-election.

It has been called after the country’s Court of Appeals declared null and void, the government’s one-seat majority. The decision leaves the Cook Islands with a hung parliament, 12 seats to 12 with one seat vacant.

The leader of the opposition Democrat ic Alliance Party (DAP), Doctor Terepai Moate said his party could end up with a majority of one, allowing it to form gov ernment.

“If we win that seat in the by-election, that means our number goes up from 10 to 11, plus the two members who are support ing us in forming a government. That will give us a majority of one,” Doctor Moate said.

Doctor Moate said if that happens, then he could become the new Prime Minister of Cook Islands. The DAP leader said he was not surprised at all by the Appeals court decision.

“That’s what we expected, actually we thought the outright win would mean our candidate would regain his seat.

“Now we are excited about that. Now that something has gone in our favour the rest is to fight the by-election. We are ready to fight it out,” Dr Moate said.

The seat, which has now been deemed vacant, was won with the slimmest majori ty of just one vote by former deputy Prime Minister Inatio Akaruru.

The result was immediately challenged by the opposition Democratic Alliance

Party.

The decision adds to the confusion after

long serving Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey

Henry resigned last month and handed power to veteran politician Doctor Joe Williams. PNS PNG Premier ceils for competition once

Air Niugini privatised

PORT MORESBY - PNG Prime Minis ter Sir Mekere Morauta is keen on an open

skies policy to make airfares affordable to travellers.

He told parliament in early August when Air Niugini is privatised, other airlines should be invited in to compete with it on both its international and domestic trunk routes.

Sir Mekere said, in response to a series of questions from Sir Rabbie Namaliu, that Air Niugini was a prime candidate for sale under the government’s privatisation policy.

Sir Rabbie had expressed concern about the high airfares being charged on passen gers and asked about the status of privatising Air Niugini.

“Air Niugini is one of the candidates for execution,” Sir Mekere said in response, adding that many of the government’s statu tory bodies were in bad shape and they should have gone “under the hammer” already.

He said that he hoped that when priva tised, whoever took over the airline would ensure the travelling public was offered an “affordable and reliable” service.

“I would like to see a fairly open skies policy, both internationally and domestical ly. An open skies policy, particularly on trunk routes,” Sir Mekere said.

On privatisation generally, the Prime Minister said at this stage, each of the (statu tory) companies had different characters and needed to be carefully assessed before being offered for sale.

“Some of them are ready to be privatised.

The others require careful management to prevent asset evaluation from being dimin ished, and Air Niugini I believe is one of those,” he said. PNS Air New Zealand increase capacity between Nadi and Lns Angeles SUVA - Air New Zealand is increasing capacity between Nadi and Los Angeles by 19 per cent from December this year.

This changeover means that the Friday service, which is now a 8767-300, will be

replaced by a 8747-400 flight.

This will bring additional 200 seats and is on key day of the week northbound from Nadi to Los Angeles and southbound on Sat urday from Los Angeles to Nadi and onward

to Auckland. “This provides connections from the UK and the European markets as well,” said Chris Hunter, Air New Zealand’s Pacific Islands manager. PNS Outgoing Kiribati Chief Justice praised for restoring confidence in the country's

judicial system

TARAWA - Kiribati’s Chief Justice for the past four years, Richard Lussick, who in 1998 imprisoned an entire magistrate lands court bench, left the country August 12 after completing his contract.

During a farewell banquet, President Teburoro Tito praised Justice Lussick for his services to Kiribati.

The President said Justice Lussick raised the standard of professionalism in Kiribati’s courts and restored the confi dence of I-Kiribati in the judicial and legal system, which was in danger of being eroded in the past years.

Justice Lussick was also credited with disposing off many outstanding cases and making inroads into the backlog of appeal cases.

President Tito said the outgoing Chief Justice raised the profile of Kiribati on the world legal stage when he was elected the Pacific regional Vice President of the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association.

For his part, Justice Lussick said he had done his work efficiently because of strong government support.

He said the I-Kiribati should be thank ful they have a government that strictly observes the doctrines of judicial indepen dence and the separation of powers.

Justice Lussick will be going on to Samoa for a new appointment. PNS King of Tonga commissions new tele

phone exchange

NUKU’ALOFA - Tonga’s King Tau fa’ahau Tupou IV officially commissioned the island nation’s new telephone exchange mid-August.

His Majesty made the first call from the

Continued on page 8

Royal Palace to Princess Pilolevu Tuita at her residence of Mahinafekite, Nukualo fa.

The conversation used a video tele phone that enables the two parties to view each other.

The new system converts the old ana logue system to digital features. Accord ing to the Tonga Telecommunication Commission (TTC), the project should alleviate customers’ complaints regarding the poor service quality of telephone num bers starting with prefixes of 21, 22, 31 and 41.

With the latest development all tele phone exchanges in Tonga are now in the digital mode.

Tonga Telecommunications Commis sion has invested about 4.5 million Pa’an ga in upgrading and replacing the tele phone exchanges in Nuku’alofa, Mu’a, Masilamea and ‘Eua.

The equipment for the project were procured from the Ericsson Limited of

Australia and funds were obtained from a loan from the Export Finance Insurance Company of Australia and the equity of the Commission. All TTC customers will now be able to access the special features of the new exchange system, including call wait ing, third-party conference, call diversion, malicious call tracing, message waiting with call answering service and caller identifica tion.

Under the project, over 10,000 addition al lines will be made available. PNS PNG AIDS conference notes "frightening trend"

RABAUL - Papua New Guinea is proba bly one of the most difficult places in the world to develop effective counter measures against the rapid spread of the HIV/AIDS, according to the National AIDS Council Secretariat director Clement Malau.

Speaking at the start of a week-long Islands Regional HIV/AIDS workshop, Dr Malau said among the factors involved in making the job difficult for government and

Non Government Organisations (NGO’s) workers was the cultural and geographical diversity of the country.

He told some 30 participants from the five islands provinces that since the first HIV case was detected in 1987, national reports indicated that PNG had a frighten ing trend of recording over 600 new cases of HIV and over 150 news cases of AIDS each year.

“This is still an estimate of the real sit uation.

“As of March this year 185 new cases of HIV infections and 41 cases of AIDS have been detected in the country,” Dr Malau said.

He said that HIV/A IDS was particular ly affecting the young sexually active and economically important members of the country, adding that the virus was pre

dominantly being spread through unpro

tected sexual intercourse.

Dr Malau said given the socio-econom ic and geopolitical diversity, constructive planning was needed for an effective national response to HIV/AIDS. PNS ■