RSS Feed
August 6th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
The new Prime Minister of Tuvalu Enele Sopoaga is confident he can hold on to power ahead of elections next year.
Tuvalu’s prime minister Enele Sopoaga says he believes his level of support will increase after a forthcoming by-election.
“Very very confident and indeed…we are very hopeful for the outcome of the by-election which I’m going to make sure it takes place as soon as possible,” Mr Sopoaga said.
The new prime minister says he wants his country to regain its lost prominence in the global climate change debate.
“I’m going to make sure that again our voice is heard and exposed to the forefront…there are no questions about that,” Mr Sopoaga said.
Mr Sopoaga and his supporters successfully passed a no confidence motion against former PM Willy Telavi.
Mr Sopoaga’s success ends months of political infighting, constitutional crisis and High Court action triggered by the death of Tuvalu’s Finance Minister last December.
During that period, former PM Telavi first refused to allow a by-election, and then refused to call parliament, when it became clear he did not have the support of majority of MPs in the 15 seat house.
The recent sitting of parliament only happened after the Governor General used his reserve powers to order it, and also ordering the suspension of Mr Telavi from office until the no confidence motion was debated.
In retaliation, Mr Telavi immediately announced the Governor General had been fired.
Topics:
government-and-politics,
community-and-society,
environment,
environmental-management,
environmental-policy,
environmental-impact,
climate-change,
tuvalu,
pacific
First posted
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-06/tuvalu-new-pm-confident-of-winning-next-election/4869580
Views: 0
Posted in 
