marus was acting speaker through a difficult period in 2010 and 2011 involving a series of disputes around parliamentary process. in december 2010, the supreme court overturned the election of paulias matane as governor-general and directed marus to recall parliament within forty days. marus launched an unsuccessful supreme court challenge to the decision, with the court ruling his application was "incompetent, unmeritorious and an abuse of process". the continued vacancy of the governor-general at a time when the opposition was claiming the prime minister's position to be also vacant due to the absence of michael somare sparked what was referred to in some quarters as a "constitutional crisis".