17 May 2013

Nauru MPs fail to topple president

7:16 am on 17 May 2013

A protracted political stalemate in Nauru may be close to ending with the speaker, Godfrey Thoma, announcing the House will be dissolved in seven days.

This comes after weeks of little action in the legislature, mostly because not enough MPs have been turning up to form a quorum.

There was a quorum briefly today and attempts were made to stage a vote of no confidence in the president, Sprent Dabwido, who is out of the country.

But this required a suspension of standing orders and needed an absolute majority of the 18 members which could not be achieved.

The parliament is due to sit again next Tuesday but Mr Thoma told MPs that he will dissolve the House next Thursday - for the past several weeks he has adamantly refused to take such a step.