30 Aug 2010

Uncertainty surrounds future of new Solomons government

1:44 pm on 30 August 2010

Media reports in Solomon Islands indicate the Opposition is planning a motion of no-confidence to remove the new Government in the first sitting of Parliament.

This follows the sudden defection of senior MP Snyder Rini to the Opposition after the new Prime Minister Danny Philip announced his Cabinet.

Among the appointments Mr Philip has made, former militant leader Jimmy Lusibaea becomes the Fisheries Minister while the new Minister of Forests is Heinz Bodo Dettke, a businsessman with strong connections to the logging industry.

Our correspondent, Dorothy Wickham, says that Mr Rini is understood to be unhappy with some of these appointments, as well as missing out on the Finance portfolio reportedly in favour of Gordon Darcy Lilo.

"It is very unclear at this point whether they will be able to hold together and push their group through and actually take this government that they have now into a sitting of parliament and hold for a few months or even a year."

Dorothy Wickham