Antoine Wright (politician)

Antoine ("Tony") Wright, born 4 March 1960,[1] is a Vanuatuan politician.

Antoine Wright

MP
Minister for Youth and Sports
In office
23 March 2013 – 15 May 2014
Prime MinisterMoana Carcasses Kalosil
Preceded byMorkin Stevens
Succeeded byDon Ken
Member of Parliament
for Port-Vila
Assumed office
30 October 2012
Personal details
Political partyUnion of Moderate Parties

Having studied in Morocco and at the International School in Bordeaux in France, he worked at the French embassy in Vanuatu.[1]

He was first elected to Parliament in the October 2012 general election, as MP for Port Vila, representing the Union of Moderate Parties - a francophone, generally conservative political movement.[1] When Prime Minister Sato Kilman lost the confidence of Parliament on 23 October 2013, new Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil (of the Green Confederation) appointed Wright as Minister for Youth and Sports within his broad coalition government.[1] In February 2014, he was one of several government MPs to defect to the Opposition, but then defected back to the government a few days later to retain his Cabinet position.[2] He lost office when the Carcasses government was brought down by a motion of no confidence on 15 May 2014.[3]

In June 2015, following a further change of government which returned Sato Kilman to power, Wright became a government backbencher. In October 2015, together with several other MPs, Wright was convicted of bribery by the Vanuatu Supreme Court. The court found that he had accepted a payment of 1,000,000 vatu from Moana Carcasses in return for support in the motion of no-confidence that brought the Kilman government to power.[4]

References
  1. Biography on the Parliament website
  2. "Chaos reigns in Vanuatu politics. Again", Radio Australia, 26 February 2014
  3. "Natuman names cabinet line-up" Archived 2014-05-17 at the Wayback Machine, Vanuatu Digest, 16 May 2014
  4. "Public Prosecutor v Kalosil - Judgment as to verdict [2015] VUSC 135; Criminal Case 73 of 2015 (9 October 2015)", Supreme Court of Vanuatu.
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