Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Nine defect from Solomons government ahead of motion of no confidence

Posted at 20:54 on 24 October, 2012 UTC

Nine members of the Solomon Islands government of Gordon Darcy Lilo have moved to the Opposition’s ranks ahead of an expected motion for a vote of no confidence this Friday.

The nine include former prime minister and minister for planning and aid co-ordination, Snyder Rini, and the environment minister, John Moffat Fugui, along with seven backbenchers.

However our correspondent, Koroi Hawkins, says at least three more members would need to leave government for the opposition to have a chance of removing Mr Lilo.

He says the opposition appears confident this will happen.

“They have heard from some of the members of parliament that are on the government side that there is a belief that Gordon Darcy Lilo is running things to suit himself and the people close to him as opposed to suiting what they believe should be the national interest. So that’s the general statement that they’ve put out there but”

“they’ve been hammering away at the Prime Minister for months now, trying to discredit him in various areas.”

Koroi Hawkins