Monday, May 27, 2013

STATE OF EMERGENCY

Today the 27th of May 2013, His Excellency President Sprent Dabwido declared a State of Emergency under Article 77 of the Constitution of Nauru. In his Address to the Nation, the President states two reasons for declaring a State of Emergency.


First the President said that there's foreseeable threat to the nation’s economic security, in relations to the insufficient funding to cater for the country’s expenditures under the Public Service such as the departmental expenses and overseas medical referrals as well as to purchasing of food supplies for the hospital.

The President also make it clear that these are expenditures that can only be released from the treasury funds under the certificate of the Speaker of Parliament under article 59 of the Constitution of Nauru, but at this stage, while there is no parliament to transact any business due to the dissolution that took place last week, the President have no other options, but to call for a State of Emergency to give him sufficient powers to ensure that these expenditures are met.

Secondly the President has made it clear that due to the delay of the dissolution process of the 20th parliament, the House has caused the two dates for election to be overlapped. Thus, the President said, he has shorten the election period from that which has been previously announced by the Speaker of Parliament the Hon. Godfrey Thoma which is to fall on the 22nd of June 2013, to an earlier date which is the 8th of June 2013. The President said the purpose of calling an early election is to avoid the overlap with the budgetary processes. 
The President appealed to the people of Nauru for their understanding and support in this move, as it is very important to keeping the country to run smoothly. In conclusion the President said that he will be issuing Presidential Orders including the authorization of the State of Emergency and the new election date via government gazette. 

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