The president of the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has vowed action against the parliament’s speaker who used his powers as acting president while his boss was away to pardon himself and 13 MPs from corruption charges.
On his return, president Baldwin Lonsdale told reporters he would “clean the dirt from my backyard”.
“The power of mercy is vested in the president and not the acting president,” he said, according to Australia’s ABC news. “We as a nation have to stop these crooked ways.”
The speaker, Marcellino Pipite, and the MPs were found by the supreme court on Friday to have accepted bribes amounting to 35 million Vatu (around £200,000) from the opposition to support a vote of no confidence. They were due to be sentenced on 22 October and face a maximum of 10 years in jail.
But as Pipite was granted executive powers while the president was abroad over the weekend, he pardoned the group on Sunday “to maintain stability in the government of the republic of Vanuatu”, according to a letter he sent to the court.
“We want peace in Vanuatu, we want unity, and we want business to prosper,” he later told reporters. The list of pardoned parliamentarians included deputy prime minister Moana Carcasses.
Pepite further used his temporary powers to suspend the country’s ombudsman, ABC reported, in what appears to be a struggle for influence among the country’s top leadership.
Lonsdale said on state television on Monday that the constitution should be amended to prevent a speaker from acting as president. “No one is above the law,” he said.
Here's the statement by Pipite Marcellino announcing the pardons which he says are in the interests of stability. pic.twitter.com/HMeiQfG0ds
— Liam Fox (@liamfoxabc) October 11, 2015
Lonsdale said he would act on the matter in the coming days.
Vanuatu is a string of more than 80 islands, not all of which are inhabited, around 3,600 kilometres east of Australia. Lonsdale, an Anglican priest, was chosen as president of the nation of around 260,000 people in September 2014.
