M.P. may topple Nauru leader

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 11

M.P. may topple Nauru leader

NZPA-AAP Yaren, Nauru

The former Finance Minister, Kinza Clodumar, has emerged as a key figure in Nauru’s continuing parliamentary crisis, political observers said yesterday.

. President Kennan Adeang, who heads a minority government after elections on December 6, has excluded Mr Clodumar from his fiveman Ministry. When Mr Adeang was

President for two weeks last September before Hammer Deßoburt regained power, Mr Clodumar was both Finance Minister and virtually the number two man in the Cabinet as Minister assisting the President.

His failure to make Mr Adeang’s new team has led to speculation that Mr Clodumar might switch his allegiance to Mr Deßoburt.

If he did, it would give the Deßoburt forces a 10-

8 majority in Parliament, enough both to provide a Speaker and outnumber the Adeang faction.

Parliament was sitting again yesterday with an Adeang supporter, Roy Degoregore, in the speaker’s chair. That gave Mr Deßoburt an effective 9-8 majority, with the ability to win a no-confidence vote in Mr Adeang at any time he chooses.

Mr Adeang has tried to adjourn the sitting to pro-

vide a “breathing space” for his shaky regime, but the Opposition is against the proposal.

Mr Adeang became President last week on a 9-8 vote of members of Parliament while a Deßoburt supporter, Rene Harris, was briefly in the chair as Speaker. Mr Harris later resigned and Mr Degoregore has been acting Speaker, giving Mr Deßoburt his one-vote majority.