51�Թ�

Articles usually stipulate that two to five people are needed to make an annual meeting “quorate” or legally valid.

The three who had most recently resigned offered to return, and make the body quorate, if Horace Engdahl resigned.

The constitution of the Solomon Islands dictates that at at least 25 of the country's 50 MPs need to be present for a sitting to be quorate.

It says lay members already have significant powers, including the power to withdraw from a meeting which would mean it would no longer be quorate.

It's past nine when we finally sit down to eat, but we are, for a Saturday night, uncharacteristically quorate.