Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, has remained mum on the fact that Edward Natapei, Prime Minister of the small Pacific island-state of Vanuatu, lost his job while he was attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend.

When the question on whether or not the Commonwealth would be taking a position to help Natapei, who missed a sitting of Parliament in his country on Friday while travelling to Trinidad to attend the meeting, Sharma simply asked whether or not that was actually a question.

Neither he, nor any of his counterparts attempted to treat with the controversial topic during the final press conference of the CHOGM yesterday evening at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain.

According to the standing orders of Vanuatu’s parliament, Natapei forfeited his seat in Parliament on Friday when he missed his third consecutive parliamentary sitting without notifying the Speaker of the House back in his country.

Natapei missed an extraordinary sitting of Parliament, where they were set to debate his country’s national budget. As such, while he was representing his country at CHOGM, the Speaker of the House, Maxime Carlot Korman, declared Natapei’s seat vacant and told the other Parliamentarians they would have to elect a new Prime Minister by next week.

Commentators are now questioning whether Vanuatu’s signing off on a Climate Change consensus and fund, intended to help small states like Vanuatu cope with global warming issues, at the Port of Spain meeting, has any standing, given Natapei’s questionable status as head of his country.