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The Contemporary Pacific Political Reviews By Anita Jowitt Some commentators continue to question The year began with the death of one of Natural disaster also struck early in the year, when an
earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit Port Vila. Some roads,
buildings, and bridges were damaged, but overall the capital city escaped
lightly scathed, with no deaths. Repair of homes and buildings continued over
the year, giving a lift to the building industry. While repairs were costly,
in many respects the damage from this earthquake had less human impact than
the earthquake and subsequent landslides in Merelava, in the northern Torba
province, in late November. Housing, water supply, cash crops, and food crops
were all affected. As Merelava is an outer island, this natural disaster
received little media attention. [End Page 463] Natural disasters aside, the first potentially
destabilizing event involved confusion over the date of dissolution of Parliament.
The government thought that dissolution was to occur on 16 March, and in the
final week was going to debate a supplementary appropriation bill to cover
police underpayments of 95 million vatu. After a careful reading of the
Constitution, the opposition figured that Parliament should actually dissolve
on 6 March. They took their challenge to the Supreme Court and won, so
Parliament was dissolved before the appropriation to pay the police could be
passed. While some police were prepared to wait until after the elections for
the underpayment issue to be resolved, others threatened strike action, and
there were fears of inadequate security during the elections. The issue was
defused at the end of March when Natapei's caretaker government, which had
been installed to manage the country between the dissolution of Parliament
and the election, paid the outstanding money to the police. Once this issue was resolved the political focus turned
to the elections, which were held on 2 May. The previous chair of the Electoral
Commission, Charles Bice, had recommended increasing the number of seats by
fifteen. However this proposal was rejected when the cost implications were
realized, and the number of seats remained at fifty-two. More than 260
candidate applications were received by the Electoral Commission. Most
applications were processed without difficulty, and 257 candidates were
accepted to stand for election. However, among the rejected was Acting
Minister of Infrastructure and Public Utilities Jacklyn Ruben Titek, whose
application was dismissed because he was not officially registered on the
electoral roll. Titek appealed the decision (Titek v The Electoral
Commission 2002). During the court hearing it was found that Titek had
never been properly registered when the electoral registration system changed
in 1999. When registration officers had called at Titek's house in 2001 to
check the registration, Titek had not been home. The officers stated that
they would come back the next day, but never did. Titek believed his
electoral card, issued in 1993, was still valid. The Supreme Court overturned
the Electoral Commission's decision and allowed Titek to be registered as a
candidate. This decision was based largely on the fact that the electoral
officers had promised to return to Titek's house and had failed to keep this
promise. (Titek retained his seat in the election.) The Electoral Commission also disqualified three
candidates a week prior to the election. Atis Kalo Manarato, Hollingson
Issachar, and Dickenson Hughug were all disqualified when it was discovered
that they each were serving suspended sentences. As a result, the Electoral
Commission apparently asked the police to screen all candidate names for
undisclosed convictions (TP, The campaign period was fairly quiet. Voter behavior
still seemed to be determined by loyalty to personalities rather than support
of particular policies, and few parties or candidates offered clear
statements of their political platforms. Various rallies were held, but the
clearest indications of campaigning in Port Vila were the thousands of
posters plastered around town (recognition of peoples' faces rather than
their policies seemed more important in the race to attract votes) and the
truckloads of campaigners driving around town dressed in party colors, honking
horns and chanting slogans. In a number of instances business owners were
allegedly threatened if they tried to remove posters stuck on their property.
Posters led to the most unpleasant incident of the
campaign period. An expatriate restaurant owner, Christophe Rodot, removed
from his menu board a poster for Port Vila independent candidate Willie
Kaloris. Kaloris's supporters had placed the notice there without permission.
Rodot left other posters of Kaloris on the walls. The next day a group of
Kaloris's supporters went to the restaurant and badly assaulted Rodot. They
also forced him to eat the poster that had been removed and to pay 20,000
vatu in "compensation." Kaloris was not present for the attack but
turned up afterwards. He threatened that when he was made a minister he would
deport Rodot. In the newspaper Kaloris was unrepentant for his behavior,
stating, "If I am in power he [Rodot] will be deported. No
question" (TP, Polling itself was also a low-key, straightforward
affair, except in Luganville, Santo, where an error on the ballot papers
delayed voting for a day. Voter turnout in the urban centers of Port Vila and
Luganville was low, at 51 percent and 45 percent respectively. Overall
turnout was 63 percent, slightly up from the 62 percent turnout in the 1998
elections. Besides the delayed voting in Luganville, other election
irregularities occurred. These were relatively well detailed as, for the
first time inVanuatu, an Elections Observer Group was set up. Errors in
counting resulted in two candidates, Maxwell Maltok and Vatambe Reme, being
declared elected in the unofficial results, only to lose their seats when the
official results were released. While the Electoral Commission maintained
that the discrepancies were due to human error, some observers believed that
the size of the discrepancies called the credibility of the Electoral
Commission into question (TP, The Union of Moderate Parties (UMP) won
15 seats (up from 12 in the 1998 national election); the Vanua'aku Party (VP) 14
seats (down from 18); the National United Party (NUP) 8
seats (down from 11); the Vanuatu Republican Party (VRP) 3
seats (up from 1); and the Greens Confederation (GC) and
the Melanesian Progressive Party (MPP) won 2 seats each (GC was
not listed in the last election, and MPP won 6 seats). The Peoples
Progressive Party, Fren Melanesian Party, and Namangi Aute each claimed 1
seat. Five independent candidates were also elected (compared to 4 in 1998). There was some evidence of "dead wood" being
voted out. Stanley Reginold (NUP), whose drunken and violent behavior was the subject of
an ombudsman's report in 2000, lost his seat in the Banks/Torres to Nicholas
Brown, a new independent candidate. Paul Ren Tari (NUP) who
had been the Speaker of Parliament during the 2001 parliamentary maneuverings
to try to avoid a vote of no confidence, and Irene Bongnaim, the first deputy
Speaker at the time, also lost their seats. The reduction in VP seats may be explained in
part by tactical or campaign errors. Each of the eighteen constituencies in Isabelle Donald (VP) of the Maewo constituency
was the only woman to [End Page 466] successfully contest the election
and to stand as a representative of a major party. Of a handful of other
female candidates, mainly in the Port Vila constituency, none came close to
gaining a seat. A VP/UMP coalition similar to the one in power prior to the
election formed the new government. Edward Natapei (VP)
retained the position of prime minister, with Serge Vohor (UMP) as
his deputy and minister for foreign affairs. The rest of the cabinet was Sela
Molisa (VP), minister for finance; Wille Posen (UMP),
minister for infrastructure and public utilities; Jacques Sese (UMP),
minister for education; Donald Kalpokas (VP), minister for health; Nicholas
Brown (VP, Ind), minister for Ni-Vanuatu business development;
Jacklyn Ruben Titek (VP), minister for lands, geology and mines; Stephen
Kalsakau (UMP), minister for agriculture, livestock, forestry and
fisheries; Joe Natuman (VP), minister for internal Affairs; Philip Boedoro (VP),
minister for the comprehensive reform programme; Jean-Alain Mahe (UMP),
minister for industry and commerce; Raphael Worwor (UMP),
minister for youth and sports. The Speaker was Henry Taga (UMP). There were some rumors that donors had threatened to
withdraw aid if Natapei was not made prime minister, even though the Union of
Modern Parties had more votes than the Vanua'aku Party. However, the
Vanua'aku Party retained the prime ministership because three independent
candidates pledged their support for the party. One of them, Nicholas Brown,
was made a member of cabinet. This government remained stable throughout
2002, despite the usual rumors of no-confidence motions circulating
occasionally. It continued to progress along the path of the Comprehensive
Reform Programme. With the elections out of the way, attention turned to
the trial of former Prime Minister Barak Sope on charges of forgery. Sope,
who was prime minister from December 1999 to April 2001, forged two
government guarantees near the end of his period in office. The first, for US$5
million, was for the benefit of Vanuatu Investment Corporation Ltd (VICL),
which had been set up with Sope's first political advisor, Bakoa Kaltonga,
and Australian businessman Eddy Galea serving as directors. This guarantee
was used as security for a loan of US$2.4 million, although the
source of this loan is not a matter of public record. The second guarantee,
for US$18 million, was made out to Dynamic Growth Management
Projects Pty Ltd, a company about which there is little public information. A
New Zealand Serious Fraud Office expert could not determine whether this
guarantee had been used as security. Sope's defense was that he had no
intention of personal gain from signing the letters of guarantee; rather, he
wanted to settle some of Vanuatu's debts, in particular a US$5
million debt to the Commonwealth Development Corporation in relation to the
Belmol cattle project—a project that remains somewhat shrouded in mystery.
The court rejected this defense because the issue was not whether Sope had
acted for personal gain. It had been established that Sope knew these
documents to be false but still signed them and sent them off, with the
intent that they [End Page 467] should be acted on as genuine. This
was all that was required to establish that the offences had been committed.
On 19 July Sope was sentenced to imprisonment for three years (Public
Prosecutor v Sope2002). People from Sope's home The potential for a crisis over the appointment of the
new police commissioner had been apparent early in the year. Api Jack
Marikembo, who was commander of the Vanuatu Military Force (VMF),
had been appointed acting commissioner of police in June 2001 following the
retirement of Peter Bong. By the end of January, VMF
officer Major Aru Maralau was questioning whether the Police Service
Commission had, in fact, advised President Bani to appoint Marikembo, as
stated in the appointment letter. Maralau was apparently suspended because of
his investigation into this matter (TP, Advertisements for the post of police commissioner went
out amid assurances that the Police Service Commission would act properly and
not allow any interference in the process. [End Page 468] On 19 July,
Mael Apisai was appointed the new commissioner of police. This soon led to an
outcry as there had initially been twelve candidates and Apisai's name had
not been among them. Four of these candidates had been short-listed and
interviewed by a selection panel made up of Jenny Ligo, Julianne Robvo, Bill
Willie, and Marcel Sam. Again Apisai's name had not come up. Holi Simon had
been the preferred candidate of the selection panel (TP, Holi Simon then applied to the Supreme Court to have the
appointment of Mael Apisai quashed. This was granted on 8 August, and the
Police Service Commission appointed Simon as acting commissioner (PIR, On 19 August Magistrate Kawai Kawaiu quashed the charges
of seditious conspiracy against the fifteen, on the grounds that the
arresting officers did not have prior written consent of the public
prosecutor (PIR, On 31 August a reconciliation ceremony was held between
the police and the Vanuatu Military Force. As part of this ceremony a number
of police suspensions and arrest warrants were withdrawn (TP, Initially twenty-six officers were charged with mutiny
and incitement [End Page 469] to mutiny but on 1 October, the first
day of the committal hearing, the public prosecutor dropped the charges
against eighteen junior officers who were not thought to be ringleaders in
the events of August. The eight remaining defendants were charged with
mutiny, incitement to mutiny, kidnapping, and false arrest. Midway through
the trial, Jean Yves Kali had the charges against him dismissed on the basis
of lack of evidence, leaving seven accused to present their defenses (ABC, Two side incidents of note were triggered by the police
mutiny events. The first concerned Deputy Prime Minister Serge Vohor's
statements on the Australian television program, sbs Dateline, that Other stories that attracted interest during the year
include the downturn in the kava industry. Many countries now will not accept
dried kava to be used for making tablets and other herbal remedies because it
appears that kava, when processed in this way, can damage users' livers.
Agricultural exports have not been very successful in 2002, arising from
difficulties with the Vanuatu Commodities Marketing Board. Football is the national sport, so ongoing confusion
about the Vanuatu Football Federation's football academy project has affected
many people. While details are still unclear, the Fédération Internationale
de Football Association (FIFA) made a large payment to the federation to support this
project. This payment went into the European Bank, which is a member of the
Bayer financial group and also involves Robert Bohn. Work on the academy has
not progressed and there are allegations that money has been misused, that
the contract to build the [End Page 470] academy was corruptly
awarded, and that the Vanua'aku Party has used these funds (TP,5 Sept 2002). At least one person, Gilles Daniel, has
already appeared in court over this matter. Certain other "troublesome
names" have come up, including Guy Bernard (who was linked with the
militia training) and Robert Bohn. The matter is now set to be resolved in
court, and it is hoped some light will be shed on what actually occurred.
Robert Bohn again found himself in trouble late in the year when he and Tom
Bayer were arrested by the FBI in New Orleans on charges related to the operation of a
lottery scam. The United States has leveled allegations of money laundering
at both Bohn and Bayer in the past (TP,10 Dec 2002). This incident has placed a strain on
Vanuatu's tax-haven status, although OECD pressure over the past few
years makes this strain familiar. As Vanuatu moved into 2003, several issues remained to be
cleared up, including the status of Barak Sope as a parliamentarian, the allegations
of corruption surrounding the football academy project, and the search for
the truth regarding the actions of Robert Bohn, Tom Bayer, and the European
Bank. With a sluggish economy over the past few years Vanuatu is also in need
of economic growth, which should be a priority for 2003. Anita Jowitt is in the School of Law at the University of
the South Pacific in Port Vila, Vanuatu. References: ABC, Australian Broadcasting
Corporation Pacific Beat. <http://abc.net.au/ra/pacbeat/>
EOG, Elections Observer Group. Republic
of Vanuatu National Elections 2 May 2002: Report of the Elections Observer
Group.2002. Blackstone Publishing: Port Vila. PIR, Pacific Islands Report. <http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/> Public Prosecutor v Sope. Unreported, Supreme Court of
Vanuatu, Crim. C. #10 of 2002, 19 July 2002. Titek v The Electoral
Commission & Anor. Unreported, Supreme Court of Vanuatu, Civ. C. #67 of 2002, 8
April 2002. TP, The Trading Post. Port Copyright © 2003
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