| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| President of Nauru Fires Parliament for Failing to Pass National Budget |
| 2004-10-01 |
| The tax & spend Dems should read this lol The president of the tiny South Pacific nation of Nauru declared a state of emergency after firing parliament for failing to pass the national budget, an official at Nauru's Embassy in Australia said Friday. President Ludwig Scotty dissolved the government on Thursday and told the nation in a televised address that he had no choice but to declare a state of emergency, the embassy official told The Associated Press by telephone. The government had no immediate comment, the official said. (Well all of them got pink slips) The turmoil was the latest crisis to hit Nauru, which once boasted one of the world's highest per capita incomes. Its population of 10,000 used to live off the island's rich reserves of phosphate, a chemical used in fertilizers. But economic mismanagement and graft, coupled with the depletion of the phosphate reserves, has driven the country to the brink of financial collapse. Parliamentary Speaker Russell Kun, who said parliament was deadlocked in an 8-8 vote on the budget, slammed Scotty's decision as unconstitutional and said opposition members of parliament would seek a court injunction. "There's anarchy going on around here," Kun told Australian Associated Press on Friday. "(Nauru) has been single-handedly taken over by one person." Kun said a state of emergency should apply only when the nation's security or economy was threatened. Nauru had a constitutional crisis in June when then-President Rene Harris was ousted in a vote of no-confidence. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |