Ishmael Kalsakau

The sacking on Friday came just a week after a motion of no confidence was filed by the opposition leader Bob Loughman who eventually withdrew it in parliament because of a lack of numbers to support it.

Kilman, who is the president of the People's Progressive Party, has been replaced as deputy prime minister by Jotham Napat of the Vanuatu Leaders' Party who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The agriculture portfolio has yet to be reassigned.

Kilman was an instrumental figure in negotiations to form prime minister Ishmael Kalsakau's coalition government.

According to the Vanuatu Daily Post newspaper, the scheduled date for the debate is set for this Friday, May 19.

The Vanuatu parliament met briefly last Friday to start its first ordinary session of 2023.

Speaker Seoule Simeon clarified since this is an ordinary session, the motion has been deemed acceptable due to the presence of nine signatures endorsing it.

Among the signatories is the leader of the opposition Bob Loughman, who moved the motion, and Marc Ati, who has seconded it.

Last month, the entire government network went down following a coordinated cyber-attack.

Kalsakau recently announced that 70 percent of services were back up and running.

As the Daily Post reports, he said hacking their system is "bread and butter" for hackers around the world.

But he said hopefully a new system will help experts react more swiftly to future threats.

Mr Salwai is being tried on corruption, bribery and perjury charges.

This comes after Mr Kalsakau had made a criminal complaint, contesting Mr Salwai's assertion that his appointment of parliamentary secretaries in 2016 was approved by his cabinet.

As the first witness in the Supreme Court trial in Port Vila, on Wednesday, Mr Kalsakau repeated that claim.

On Thursday he told the court that parliamentary secretaries had, in fact, been introduced in 2007 by the Sato Kilman government, of which Mr Kalsakau was a member.

MPs in Kalsakau's Union of Moderate Parties met on Tuesday with the party executive after Tanna MP Robin Kapapa announced he was leaving the coalition government.

The UMP president Serge Vohor was understood to have wanted the party's MPs to follow Kapapa and also defect.

Local media reports that MPs agreed at the meeting to retain the status quo of having five MPs in government and one in opposition.

But Kalsakau said the six MPs would stick together.

Ishmael Kalsakau has himself been accused of attending a parliamentary induction workshop before the ordinary session of parliament under the influence of alcohol

Mr Kalsakau said it was a pestilent response by the opposition to his claims that Transparency International had previously a voice to highlight abuses of power by ministers.

"The only response that could come back from the opposition was that I was drunk, without making an enquiry as to whether I was drinking and how much I'd been drinking.

 The opposition bloc, led by Ishmael Kalsakau, filed the motion last week, citing public dissatisfaction with the government's progress.

This is the fifth attempt by Mr Kalsakau to remove the Charlot Salwai-led government since the 2016 election.

However, the Daily Post reports that in parliament yesterday, the government continued to command its usual majority.

Mr Kalsakau says the opposition will be watching with keen interest the promises made by the Salwai government to produce a list of its achievements after its first 100-days.

He says this has been promised before without success.

Mr Kalsakau, who is the former Attorney general, has called on the deputy prime minister, Joe Natuman, to step aside to allow a legal case, alleging he was involved in a conspiracy surrounding the appointment of the Police Commissioner, to be heard in court.

Yestede oli confem se Union of MP blong Port Vila mo foma Atoney Generel, Ishmael Kalsakau hemi stap olsem niu Lida blong Oposisen.

Mr Kalsakau hemi blong Ifira island we istap foret long Port Vila Haba. Hemi wan memba blong Union blong ol Moderet Pati (UMP) mo hemi fes taem blong hem blong pipol I electem hem igo insaet long palamen.