Fred Yakasa is new police commissioner, Gabriel Yer new finance secretary

Fred Yakasa was appointed as new police commissioner last night by the new Somare government, replacing Tom Kulunga. 

Yakasa was the one who stopped former Prime Minister Peter O'Neill from entering Government House last night.

Former Finance Secretary Gabriel Yer was also reinstated to his position last night, replacing Steven Gibson.

Namah, Marat to appear in court today

By SAMUEL RAITANO

BELDEN Namah and Dr Allan Marat are expected to appear before the Supreme Court today for contempt charges against them, The National reports.

Namah walking to the Waigani Court House yesterday in the company of police officers to hear the decision on the reference of the validity of the government he helped set up.

The charges related to their alleged orchestrating of the National Executive Council’s decision to suspend the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia last month.
The NEC decision was withdrawn soon afterwards but not before the two were arrested and charged with contempt. They were released on K5,000 bail.
Namah and Marat appeared in court yesterday but their case was adjourned to today because the court spent most of the afternoon delivering its ruling on the East Sepik reference case. It ended at 6.20pm.
Their matter related to the move by the NEC in the O’Neill government  to sack Sir Salamo on Nov 10. The decision was reversed on Nov 14.
Sir Salamo faced misconduct allegations.
Yesterday Namah walked from the Waigani Supreme Court following the crash of the government he had engineered on Aug 2.
He hinted that “the real decision will be from parliament”

Parliament ‘sabotage’ leads to stand-off at Government House

PARLIAMENT’s coup to re-elect Peter O’Neill minutes after his government was ousted by the Supreme Court nearly ended in bloodshed as police officers prevented him from being sworn in at Government House last night, The National reports.
Speaker Jeffery Nape was regularly informed of the court proceedings when leader of government business Moses Maladina brought forward government agenda for debate on the budget.
As soon as the court ruling of 3-2 was communicated to the speaker, he briefly left the chair and was believed to confer with O’Neill, Chris Haiveta, and chief of staff Ben Micah before executing the next move.
Nape then entered the chamber interrupting Lae MP Bart Philemon who was making his budget statement.
The speaker informed parliament that the Supreme Court had ruled that there was no vacancy. But Nape said a vacancy did occur by the decision of parliament last Friday to rescind leave of absence granted to Sir Michael which was duly signed into effect by the governor-general and gazetted to remove him as the East Sepik MP.
Nape also said parliament, again, yesterday morning made amendments to the Prime Minister and NEC Amendment Bill, effectively removing Sir Michael as prime minister. This was carried by a 71-0
vote and certified.
Given these facts, Nape said there was a vacancy in the office of the prime minister and called for nominations.
Member for Anglimp-South Waghi Jamie Maxtone-Graham nominated O’Neill, seconded by Hagen MP William Duma

Grand Chief announces interim cabinet

SIR Michael Somare last night announced a restored cabinet which excluded the ministers who defected on Aug 2.
The new cabinet is:
Sam Abal: Deputy Prime Minister and Immigration;
Patrick Pruaitch: Treasury and Finance, and State-Owned Enterprises;
Sir Arnold Amet: Justice and Attorney General, and Public Service;
Sasa Zibe: Health, and Inter Government Relations;
Timothy Bonga: Forestry, and Internal Security;
James Marape: Education, and National Planning and District Development;
Benjamin Poponowa: Transport and Civil Aviation;
Philip Kikala: Agriculture and Livestock;
Paru Ahi: Higher Education, Research Science and Technology, and Foreign Affairs and Trade;
Fidelis Semoso: Bougainville Affairs;
Patrick Tammur: Communication and Information;
Francis Potape: Petroleum and Energy;
Ben Semri: Fisheries, and Commerce and Industry;
Tony Aimo: Correctional Services, and Lands and Physical Planning;
Andrew Kumbakor: Housing and Urban Development;
Philemon Embel: Sports and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister;
Bob Dadae: Defence;
Sani Rambi: Labour and Industrial Relations;
Dame Carol Kidu: Community Development; and
John Pundari: Mining; and
Anderson Agiru: Works, and Conservation and Environment.
Sir Michael said he had appointed the governor of resource-rich Southern Highlands province as a new minister in his cabinet and was pleased to welcome him in his new role.
He said he stood ready to lead his restored government over the next few months until the writs were issued for the 2012 election.
“The judiciary has again upheld our Constitution and maintained the independence between the three arms of government – the legislature, executive and judiciary”.
Sir Michael said the full cabinet would be announced in the next few days.
“The ministers who had defected have been decommissioned,” he added.
He called on the members of the public to remain calm and not take the law into their own hands.
“My government followed processes and waited for the appropriate authority – the judiciary to make its judgment.

Sir Michael Somare is back

CONFUSION reigned last night when it appeared the country had two prime ministers – Sir Michael Somare and Peter O’Neill, The National reports.

Sir Michael Somare

Sir Michael was reinstated as prime minister by a 3-2 Supreme Court decision yesterday which declared the election of Peter O’Neill on Aug 2 as null and void.
The court also voided his Sir Michael’s ouster as member for East Sepik.
A few minutes after the court decision, parliament voted 79-0 to retain O’Neill as prime minister.  But he was denied access to Government House to be officially sworn in by Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio.
Speaker Jeffery Nape said O’Neill’s election stemmed from two recent parliament decisions. The first decision last Friday rescinded the leave of absence granted to Sir Michael in May. This had the effect that he had now missed three consecutive sittings of parliament and would, therefore, stand dismissed as the member for East Sepik.
The second referred to yesterday’s amendment to the Prime Minis­ter & NEC Act which, among others, contended that should a prime minister absent himself from the country for three months, which Sir Michael did while on medical leave, a vacancy would arise in the
office of the prime minis­ter.
Declaring that these actions created a new vacancy regardless of the court decision, parliament on a nomination from Anglimp-South Waghi MP Jamie Maxtone-Graham elected O’Neill unopposed by 69 votes to nil.
While the court decision stated that all subsequent decisions by the O’Neill government stands voided, it is uncertain whether parliament was included as this would have an important bearing on its actions last Friday and yesterday, which led to the re-election of O’Neill yesterday.
This confusion unfolded later in a tense drama outside Government House last night when a police contingent, headed by senior police officers Fred Yakasa and Joseph Tondop, held off the O’Neill convoy from entering the Government House for the swearing-in cere­mony.
Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga was dispatched to the Government House soon after that but, in the end at 8.30pm, the governor-general’s official secretary informed police at the gate that Sir Michael Ogio had retired for the day and will not perform any official duty until today.
A policeman said a court order was deli­vered earlier in the afternoon to Government House not to entertain any swearing-in ceremony which led to the police move to prevent any ceremony taking place last night.
Police manning the blockade said there was confusion as there were no proper instructions from government lawyers as to what the real situation was last night or who really was in charge.
The stand-off was still maintained at 9.30 last night.
The remnants of the Somare regime last night met and announced a caretaker cabinet

Breaking news: Peter O'Neill re-elected as Prime Minister

Immediately after the court ruling, ousted Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was rushed to Parliament and re-elected as Prime Minister 69-0.
He was then rushed to Government House to be sworn in as Prime Minister

Court rules in favor of Somare

The Supreme Court has ruled 3-2 in favor of former Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia, and judges Nicholas Kiriwom and Les Gavara Nanu ruled in favor of Sir Michael while Deputy Chief Justice Gibbs Salika and judge Bernard Sakora went for O'Neill.

The court ruled that O'Neill was wrongly elected as Prime Minister on August 2 as there never was a vacancy in the office at that time.

It further ordered that Sir Michael be restored forthwith back into office and that Parliament sit to right its wrong.

More to come