This clearly confirmed that neither side has an absolute majority in parliament.
Only 25 MPs from the Opposition side were present in the parliament resulting in the lack of quorum and the failure of the opposition to oust Prime Minister (PM) as they claimed in their press conference at their camp in Pango.
Yesterday, Opposition Bob Loughman said again that they will form the new coalition government next week. This can only happen if they have a majority of 27 MPs.
With the appointment of three signatories of the motion as state ministers the government has prevented the opposition to get a majority support.
As predicted by the Daily Post on Tuesday, Vanuatu is now in a political impasse where the bills could not be passed and seeking dissolution is not possible. The failure in parliament to reach a quorum yesterday means this situation will remain until next Wednesday.
The political crisis began when Loughman deposited his second motion with 29 signatures last Thursday. The numbers shifted from Kalsakau to Loughman.
During the last session, Opposition benefited from the support of only 15 MPs. Since the motion deposited there were movement of MPs to both sides.
Even after the dissolution yesterday, Loughman was still claiming that he has the support of 29 MPs knowing that some of the signatories have defected from the opposition camp to join the government side.
PM Kalsakau said in a press conference yesterday with Presidents of political parties in government that they decided not to boycott the session to demonstrate that Loughman had no simple majority.
Kalsakau said he is confident he will defeat the motion.
President of the Ground and Justice Party (GJP), Ralph Regenvanu rejected Loughman’s call for a session to debate the motion without having the required numbers.
Regenvanu said that during his reign as an Opposition Leader he has successfully deposited a motion in 2022 which resulted in the Council of Ministers requesting a dissolution.
President of the Reunification Movement of Change and one of the former PM, Charlot Salwai said Vanuatu is now facing a political crisis and is difficult to form a new government.
He appealed to the MPs to make national interest their priority.
President of the Leaders Party, Jotham Napat reminded all members of parliament that Kalsakau was elected unopposed and why suddenly after just eight months the opposition wants a new government to be elected.
Deputy PM and Foreign Affairs Minister, Matai Seremaiah during the press conference labelled the minimum wage increase which is one of the arguments of the motion as baseless.
Matai said the Opposition MPs are against the increase of salaries of workers who elected them but want an increase of their allowances to VT15 million.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that the political impasse will be solved before the parliament session next week
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