James Wango

James Wango, also known as James Ngwango, is a ni-Vanuatu politician.

A member of the People's Progress Party, of which he is the treasurer,[1] he was elected to Parliament as MP for Ambae in the September 2008 general election, one of four MPs from the People's Progress Party.[2][3]

In December 2010, Prime Minister Edward Natapei was ousted in a motion of no confidence, and PPP leader Sato Kilman replaced him.[4] Kilman set up a coalition government, which did not include Wango,[5] and the latter eventually defected to the Opposition.[6] In February 2011, as the Opposition prepared a motion of no confidence against Kilman's premiership, the Prime Minister secured his majority by offering Wango a position in Cabinet. Wango joined the government as Minister for Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Quarantine.[7]

Kilman was eventually ousted in a vote of no confidence on 24 April 2011, however, and Wango lost his position in government.[8] He recovered it three weeks later, on 13 May, when the Court of Appeal voided the election of Serge Vohor's new government on constitutional grounds, and the Kilman government was restored.[9] This lasted for only a month; on 15 June, the Kilman premiership was itself voided on constitutional grounds by the Supreme Court's Chief Justice Vincent Lunabek, and Wango lost office once more.[10]