PORT VILA –Vanuatu’s president Baldwin Lonsdale has revoked the pardons granted to 14 government MPs convicted of bribery.

Shortly after the announcement, police arrested several MPs and transferred them to a correctional facility in the capital, Port Vila.

Eleven MPs and three lawyers were named on the arrest warrant, served on suspicion of conspiracy to defeat the course of justice. The ministers now in custody have been stood down from their parliamentary positions.

The arrests relate to a meeting that was held to organise the pardons before their controversial announcement on Sunday by the acting president, Marcellino Pipite.

The man at the centre of the original bribery convictions that sparked the crisis, deputy prime minister Moanna Carcasses, was not named on the arrest warrant, nor was fellow convicted MP and foreign minister Serge Vohor.

It is believed that Carcasses and Vohor, along with MP and Steven Kalsakau, were not present at the meeting planned the pardoning strategy.

Lonsdale said Pipite had breached Vanuatu’s constitution and used assumed presidential powers to pervert the course of justice.

Pipite, who was acting president on the weekend, used his interim executive powers to pardon himself and 13 other MPs, including Carcasses.

The president said Pipite acted before the MPs had been sentenced and a pardon only applies to people who have been sent to jail.

The MPs were due in court for sentencing on the original charges next Thursday.

The group Vanuatu Women Against Crime and Corruption still plans to go ahead with its planned march in Port Vila on Monday. It had initially focussed on the controversial pardoning of the 14 MPs after they had been convicted of giving and receiving corrupt payments.

The controversial pardon has led to a political crisis and sparked anger among anti-corruption activists.

With the pardons now revoked, march organiser Jenny Ligo said they were still keen to march to show their solidarity for Lonsdale’s action.

“This is to demonstrate that we also do not want to see these illegal activities happening in Vanuatu, so I think that is the most important thing for women who live in Vila to show physically our demonstration on what has happened.”

Ligo said the group had police approval for the march on Monday but were waiting for the green light from the government.

Under Vanuatu’s constitution, the speaker acts as president when the latter is travelling overseas.

Section 38 states the president may pardon, commute or reduce a sentence imposed on a person convicted of an offence.

They were due to be sentenced on October 22.

Lonsdale told local media today the revocation was necessary because Pipite had breached the provisions of the leadership code in the constitution.

Lonsdale, who returned to Vanuatu late Sunday afternoon, had vowed to take action against the MPs and “clean the dirt from my backyard”.

Meanwhile, the opposition also filed a motion of no-confidence in the prime minister, Sato Kilman, who has not been heard from since the conviction of most of his ruling government MPs.

The no-confidence motion is expected to be put to the 53-seat parliament on Wednesday.

Last Friday, Vanuatu’s Supreme Court found the deputy prime minister had made cash payments amounting to 35 million vatu ($452,000) to his fellow MPs last year, when they were all in opposition.

Justice Mary Sey ruled that the payments were corruptly made by the deputy prime minister, corruptly received, and designed to influence MPs in their capacity as public officials.