8 Apr 2008

Nauru speaker says court ruling leaves house deadlocked

3:32 pm on 8 April 2008

Nauru's Speaker, Opposition MP, David Adeang, says a Supreme Court decision doesn't change the fact that parliament remains deadlocked.

The Chief Justice, Robin Millhouse, says Mr Adeang was wrong to declare a quorum when less than half the members were in the House.

Mr Adeang had used the opportunity to push through changes to the Citizenship Act which would have barred two senior Government MPs from attending Parliament.

The Chief Justice says that legislation was invalid.

Mr Adeang says he is seeking a legal opinion but says the onus remains on the Government to act over the stalemate.

"As we proposed earlier, I think that a Government that fails to govern effectively as a result of having lost control of the Parliament is obliged to stand down in one form or another. And that would be in the form of a resignation by the President or his advice to the Speaker to dissolve the House, because whatever the Chief Justice determined does not affect political realities here that we are stalemated."

David Adeang