Vanuatu Deputy PM

Public prosecutor, Josiah Naigulevu, told the court yesterday that he proposed to have another meeting with the defending lawyers to reduce his witnesses under a new Memorandum of Agreement.

There were 29 prosecutor witnesses listed for the trial but some of them didn't receive the summons to appear in court this week.

On Tuesday Naigulevu told the court they had 26 witnesses to testify in the Supreme Court trial.

Yesterday Naigulevu spent over three hours questioning the first witness and main complainant in the case, Deputy Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau.

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.

Mr Natuman resigned last week after receiving a letter from the Speaker of Parliament barring him from entering parliament.

Mr Natuman was given a two year suspended sentence in March after earlier pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

He had no immediate plans to step aside, but the Speaker, Esme Saemon, declared his seat vacant and urged him to seek clarification from the courts.

Like Mr Natuman, Mr Loughman is a member of the Vanua'aku Pati for Tanna.

Joe Natuman and the former police commissioner, Aru Maralau, are on trial in the Supreme Court, accused of trying to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Natuman is accused of trying to stop a police team from investigating high-ranking officers, including Mr Maralau, when he was prime minister in 2014.

But their lawyer, Nigel Morrison, sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that the prosecution did not establish that there was any criminal intent to interfere.