Vanuatu’s only incumbent female parliamentarian has lost her seat in a snap election leaving only one woman candidate in contention after an unofficial vote count.

The unofficial counting at polling locations indicated the majority of the 52 incumbent MPs have been reelected but also with some high profile departures.

Former deputy prime minister Jotham Napat, head of the Leaders Party, has secured up to nine MPs, putting him in poll position to try to form a coalition government.

Vanuatu’s snap election last Thursday was called in November and held in spite of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that devastated the capital Port Vila in December.

The election results will be confirmed by the official count of votes in the capital once all ballot boxes have been transported from electorates to Port Vila.

Former female MP Julia King from the Efate constituency has likely lost her seat.

She made international headlines in 2022 as the first woman elected in Vanuatu in more than a decade and only the sixth woman to serve in Parliament since the nation’s independence in 1980.

Only hope for women
Marie Louis Milne, a candidate for the Port Vila constituency, has emerged as the only hope for a woman to sit in the chamber in the next term. Both Milne and a male candidate claim to have won the sixth and final seat in the electorate, based on the unofficial figures.

“The high number of voters supporting women is a positive indication of changing perceptions surrounding women’s leadership and decision-making,” Milne told BenarNews.

“There are numerous pressing issues we want to address in Parliament, including women’s health and their economic development.”

The possible lack of female representation is a disappointment for Vanuatu governance and development policy specialist Anna Naupa.

Marie Louis Milne, a candidate for the Port Vila constituency, has emerged as the only hope for a woman to sit in the chamber in the next term. Both Milne and a male candidate claim to have won the sixth and final seat in the electorate, based on the unofficial figures.

“The high number of voters supporting women is a positive indication of changing perceptions surrounding women’s leadership and decision-making,” Milne told BenarNews.

“There are numerous pressing issues we want to address in Parliament, including women’s health and their economic development.”

Gender disappointment
The possible lack of female representation is a disappointment for Vanuatu governance and development policy specialist Anna Naupa.

“We will wait for the official results, and if that turns out to be true, it is a sad reality for our country (that) women continue to face significant challenges in entering Parliament,” Naupa told BenarNews.

“We really need to look back at systems we have in place to help facilitate voices of women and vulnerable groups in our society.

“This means the new legislature needs to pull up its socks to listen to all people, at every level of society.”

This election there were seven women among the 217 candidates contesting, matching the number in 2022 but down from 18 in 2020.

Several high profile MPs losing seats
The unofficial results show several high profile MPs are likely to lose their seats, including four-time prime minister Sato Kilman, head of the People’s Progressive Party.

Leaders from seven parties were re-elected including former prime minister Charlot Salwai from the Reunification Movement for Change, former prime minister Ishmael Kalsakau of the Union of Moderate Parties and former foreign minister Ralph Regenvanu of the Graon mo Jastis Pati.

“I am happy to return again and start working very soon — that’s all I have to say for now,” Regenvanu told BenarNews.

Other leaders thanked their voters on social media for their re-election.

Hopes for a generational change in Parliament rest with the few new MPs who look likely to be elected, including Matai Kaltabang in Julia King’s former electorate in Efate.

If elected, the member of the Iauko Group will be the youngest person in the 14th Parliament, at the age of 28 years old, and one of the youngest ever elected.

Parliamentary standing orders require the first sitting of the house be convened within 21 days of the election.

Despite the setbacks in the unofficial results for women, Milne remains optimistic, urging the six other female candidates who participated in the elections to persevere.

“I encourage them to never give up, build on what they have, and continue to make a difference in their communities so that in four years, we can see more women represented in Parliament,” she said.

Leah Lowonbu is a BenarNews contributor. Stefan Armbruster contributed to this report from Brisbane. Copyright BenarNews 2025 and republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Today marks one month since a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila, claiming 14 lives, injuring more than 200 people, and displacing thousands more.

Downtown Port Vila remains a no-go zone.

Star Wharf, the international port, is still out of action and parts of the city and some of the villages surrounding it still have not had their water supply reconnected.

The Recovery Operations Centre estimates around 6000 workers from 200 businesses that operate in the CBD have been impacted.

All the while, loud rumbling tremors continue to rock the city; a recent one measuring above magnitude 5 on the Richter scale.

Leinasei Tarisiu lives outside of Vila but came in to vote in the snap election yesterday. She said children in her household still panic when there is an earthquake, even if it is small.

“They are still afraid. Even last night when we had that one that happened, we all ran outside,” she said.

“It’s hard for us to remain in the house.”

Ongoing trauma
The only mental health specialist at Vila Central Hospital, Dr Jimmy Obed, said the ongoing seismic activity is re-traumatising many.

Obed said as things slowly returned to something resembling normalcy, more people were reaching out for mental health support.

“What we try and tell them is that it’s a normal thing for you to be having this anxiety,” he said.

“And then we give them some skills. How to calm themselves down . . . when they are panicking, or are under stress, or have difficulty sleeping.

“Simple skills that they can use — even how children can calm and regulate their emotions.”

Trenold Tari, an aviation worker who spoke to RNZ Pacific after he had cast his vote, said he hopes they are able to elect leaders with good ideas for Vanuatu’s future.

“And not just the vision to run the government and the nation but also who has leadership qualities and is transparent. People who can work with communities and who don’t just think about themselves,” he said.

Wanting quick rebuild
Many voters in the capital said they wanted leaders who would act quickly to rebuild the quake-stricken city.

Others said they were sick of political instability.

This week’s snap election was triggered by a premature dissolution of parliament last year; the second consecutive time President Nike Vurobaravu has acted on a council of ministers’ request to dissolve the house in the face of a leadership challenge.

Counting this week’s election, Vanuatu will have had five prime ministers in the last four years.

The chairperson of the Seaside Tongoa community, Paul Fred Tariliu, said they have discussed this as a group and made their feelings clear to their election candidate.

“We told our candidate to tell the presidents of all the political parties they are affiliated with — that if they end up in government and they find at some point they don’t have the number and a motion is brought against you, please be honest and set a good example — tell one group to step down and let another government come in,” Tariliu said.

Desperate need of aid
Election fever aside, thousands of people in Port Vila are still in desperate need of assistance.

The head of the Vanuatu Red Cross Society is looking to start distributing financial relief assistance to families affected by last month’s earthquake.

The society’s secretary-general, Dickinson Tevi, said some villages were still without water and a lot of people were out of work.

“We have realised that there are still a few requests coming from the communities. People who haven’t been assessed during the emergency,” Tevi said.

“So, we have made plans to do a more detailed assessment after this to make sure we don’t leave anyone out.”

Tevi said with schools due to restart soon, parents and families who had lost their main source of income were under a lot of stress.

In a release, Save the Children Vanuatu country director Polly Bank, said disasters often had the power to suddenly turn children’s lives upside down, especially if they had lost loved ones, had their education interrupted, or had been forced to flee their homes.

Critical for children’s recovery
“In the aftermath of any disaster, it is critical for children recovering that they are able to return to their normal routines as soon as possible,” she said.

“And for most kids, this would include returning to school, where they can reconnect with friends and share their experiences.”

She said at least 12,500 children in the country may be forced to start the new school year in temporary learning centres with at least 100 classrooms across the country damaged or destroyed.

It is back to business for Vanuatu today after the public holiday that was declared yesterday to allow people to go and vote.

Unofficial election results continue to trickle in with local media reporting an even distribution of seats across the country for the Leaders Party, Vanua’aku Party, Reunification Movement for Change and the Iauko Group.

But it is still early days, with official results a while away.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

More than 180,000 registered voters are expected to cast their votes today with polls now open in Vanuatu.

It is remarkable the snap election is even able to happen with Friday marking one month since the 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the capital Port Vila.

According to the government, 14 people died as a result of the quake, more than 210 were injured and thousands displaced.

Despite all of this Principal Electoral Officer Guilain Malessas said they worked around the clock to deliver the election within the two-month timeframe stipulated by the constitution.

The voter turnout at the last election was less than 50 percent but Malessas is optimistic participation today will be high.

He urged voters to go and exercise their democratic right.

“This country — we own it, it’s ours. If we just sit and complain that, this, that and the other thing aren’t good but then don’t contribute to making decisions then we will never change,” Malessas said.

Not everybody convinced
But not everybody is convinced that proceeding with the election was the right decision.

The president of the Port Vila Council of Women, Jane Iatika, said many families were still grieving, traumatised and struggling to put food on the table.

“If they were thinking about the people they would have [postponed] the election and dealt with the disaster first,” she said.

“Like right now if a mother goes and lines up to vote in the election — when they come back home what are they going to eat?”

This is the second consecutive time Vanuatu’s Parliament has been dissolved in the face of political instability.

And the country has had four prime ministerial changes in as many years.

The chairman of the Seaside Tongoa community, Paul Fred Tariliu,. said people were starting to lose faith in leadership, not just in Parliament but at the community level as well.

Urging candidates to ‘be humble’
He said they had been urging their candidates to be humble and concede defeat if they found themselves short of the numbers needed to rule.

“Instead of just going [into Parliament] for a short time [then] finding out they don’t have the numbers and dissolving Parliament,” Tariliu said.

“We are wasting money.

“When we continue with this kind of attitude people lose their trust in us [community] leaders and our national leaders.”

The official results of the last election in 2022 show a low voter turnout of just over 44 percent with the lowest participation in the country, just 34 percent, registered here in the capital Port Vila.

Conducting the election itself is a complicated logistical exercise with 352 polling stations spread out over the 12,000-sq km archipelago manned by 1700 polling officials and an additional one in Nouméa for citizens residing in New Caledonia.

Proxy voting is also being facilitated for workers overseas.

360 police for security
Deputy Police Commissioner Operations Kalo Willie Ben said more than 360 police officers had been deployed to provide security for the election process.

He said there were no active security threats for the election, but he said they were prepared to deploy more resources to any part of the country should the need arise.

“My advice [to the public] is that we conduct ourselves peacefully and raise any issues through the election dispute process,” Kalo Willie Ben said.

The head of the government Recovery Unit, Peter Korisa, said according to their initial estimates it would cost just over US$230 million to fully rebuild the capital after the earthquake.

Korisa said they were getting backlash for the indefinite closure of the CBD but continued to work diligently to ensure that, whatever government comes to power this month, it would be presented with a clear recovery plan.

“We still have a bit of funding but there is a greater challenge because we need to have a government in place so that we can trigger the bigger funding,” Korisa said.

Polling stations close at 4:30pm local time.

Unofficial check count
Principal electoral officer Malessas said an unofficial count would be conducted at all polling station venues before ballot boxes were transported back to the capital Port Vila for the official tally.

According to parliamentary standing orders, the first sitting of the new Parliament must be called within 21 days of the official election results being declared.

A spokesperson for the caretaker government has confirmed to RNZ Pacific that constitutional amendments aimed at curbing political instability would apply after the snap election.

The most immediate impact of these amendments will be that all independent MPs, and MPs who are the only member of their party or custom movement, must affiliate themselves with a larger political party for the full term of Parliament.

They also lock MPs into political parties with any defection or removal from a party resulting in the MP concerned losing their seat in Parliament.

However, the amendments do not prohibit entire parties from crossing the floor to either side so long as they do it as a united group.

It remains to be seen how effective the amendments will be in curbing instability.

The only real certainty provided by the constitution after this snap election is that the option to dissolve Parliament will not be available for the next 12 months.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Vanuatu’s Elections Minister Johnny Koanapo is urging every Ni-Vanuatu person living in New Caledonia to take part in the upcoming vote for the national referendum next Wednesday.

He highlighted that the current situation in New Caledonia presented exceptional circumstances that could impact on people’s participation on polling day — May 29 — but recent adopted amendments to the Referendum Act address any special circumstances that may arise.

The amendment to the referendum act states, “The Electoral Commission may, on the advice of the Principal Electoral Officer, extend the timing and date of voting in specified polling stations if the Electoral Commission is satisfied that there are special circumstances in those locations.”

Koanapo said the Vanuatu Electoral Commission would collaborate with the government of New Caledonia through the Vanuatu Consulate-General in Nouméa to ensure that Vanuatu citizens residing in New Caledonia can participate in the referendum.

“We want to make sure that all Vanuatu citizens living in New Caledonia can exercise their rights and participate in this national referendum,” he said.

Tensly Sumbe is a Vanuatu Daily Post reporter. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Ishmael Kalsakau was elected today unopposed as the 13th Prime Minister of the republic of Vanuatu by secret ballot.

Kalsakau was elected by the 52 members of the country’s Parliament.

“Thank you, thank you for the election,” Kalsakau said after the vote.

The former prime minister and president of the Vanua’aku Party, Bob Loughman, stood up at the session and said his group had no candidate to put forward for prime minister but would vote for Kalsakau.

Under the national constitution, a prime minister must be elected by a secret ballot even if standing unopposed.

Kalsakau was elected by 50 votes, with two invalid votes.

At the time of his election the new coalition government led by Prime Minister Kalsakau was composed of eight political parties and no independents.

About the new PM
This is Ishmael Kalsakau’s first time as prime minister of Vanuatu.

He was deputy prime minister in the last government.

Kalsakau is a lawyer by profession. Before his involvement in politics, he served as the Attorney-General of Vanuatu.

He originates from a small island in Port Vila Harbor, Ifira, and went to Malapoa College.

Kalsakau is the younger brother of the Paramount Chief of Ifira, Matoi Kalsakau.

He is not the first prime minister from Ifira.

This honour is held by Barak Sope who was prime minister from 1999 to 2001.

Kalsakau and his soon to be formed cabinet step into their roles at a crucial time for Vanuatu as the heavily tourism dependent country emerges from the pandemic.

His priorities will be spelt out when the government is fully formed, he said in an interview following the first session of Parliament.

First session of Parliament
Elected representatives from both camps emerged from coalition talks to take their oaths at the first parliamentary session.

It follows last month’s snap election which was triggered by the dissolution of Parliament on August 18 on the eve of a vote of no confidence in the former prime minister Bob Loughman led by former opposition leader Ralph Regenvanu.

In the lead up to today’s sitting, Regenvanu’s camp had strong numbers — with 30 MPs on his side.

But before stepping foot in Parliament the consensus was that Ishmael Kalsakau be put up to lead the government, said Vanuatu Broadcasting Corporation senior journalist Simo Warijo.

On the floor, empty seats were noticeable on Bob Loughman’s side.

Despite Kalsakau’s landslide victory, Loughman walked into Parliament with 22 people in his camp.

Numbers do not lie
Prime Minister Ishmael Kalaskau is the leader of the Union of Moderate Parties and secured seven seats in the snap election, equal highest with former prime minister Bob Loughman’s Vanua’aku Pati.

In comparison, Ralph Regenvanu’s Graon mo Jastis Pati only managed to secure four seats.

MP Gloria King takes first oath
Rapturous applause filled the house this morning as Gloria Julia King, the only woman MP to be elected to Vanuatu’s Parliament since 2008, stepped up to take the first oath:

“I King Gloria Julia, having been elected member of Parliament, I do swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the republic of Vanuatu…”

King has also been appointed third Deputy Speaker, a significant role for a first-time MP.

Simeon returned as Speaker
The former Speaker, Seoule Simeon, has been reelected by the new MPs.

He is the MP for Epi constituency and was nominated by former prime minister Bob Loughman’s coalition.

His contender for the job was MP for Port Vila constituency Ulrick Sumpton, who was nominated by former opposition leader Ralph Regenvanu’s camp.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The results of Vanuatu’s snap election have been released, but it is not clear who has come out on top.

The official results have revealed a fractured Parliament with seven being the highest number of MPs won by a single party.

The caretaker prime minister and leader of Vanua’aku Pati, Bob Loughman, has secured seven seats and former opposition leader Ralph Regenvanu’s Graon mo Jastis Party has four seats.

A commentator on Vanuatu politics, Dr Tess Newton Cain, said both sides now needed to rely on independents and minor parties to form a majority.

Leading up to the release of the official results on Sunday, two coalition groups had formed.

Ralph Regenvanu’s coalition claims to have 31 out of 52 seats.

However, some candidates are appearing on the roster for both coalitions and things will not become clear until Parliament is called to swear-in the MPs.

Woman elected
It has been confirmed that a woman has been elected for the first time in more than a decade.

Gloria Julia Kings of the Union of Moderate Parties has been elected in Efate Rural alongside two colleagues. She was the fourth of five elected candidates with 1618 votes.

The election was triggered when Vanuatu’s Supreme Court dismissed a constitutional application in September challenging the dissolution of Parliament.

The 27 opposition MPs had challenged the legality of the dissolution, given a motion of no confidence had been filed against Loughman as prime minister.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Voter turnout in 🇻🇺 reached below 50% in this year’s election. Only 48.45% of all registered voters who turned up to vote on the 13 October 2022. pic.twitter.com/9OJduQRCtf

— Jason Matariki (@Jaxniel) October 23, 2022

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A woman candidate appears to have won a seat for the first time in Vanuatu in more than a decade in unofficial results from last week’s snap election.

Julie King, a member of the Union of Moderate Parties, is reported to have won one of the seats in the Efate constituency.

She is from Mele Village, outside Port Vila, the same town that provided the country’s first president, Ati George Sokomanu, in 1980.

Official results are expected later this week.

Meanwhile, a group of parties has formed with the aim of producing a coalition government.

A pact has been signed between five of the largest political parties and associated smaller parties, and, with independent MPs they are claiming the support of 31 members of the new Parliament.

RNZ Pacific correspondent in Port Vila Hilaire Bule said the main parties in the new group are the Union of Moderate Parties, the Reunification of the Movement of Change, the Leaders Party, the Land and Justice Party, the People’s Progressive Party and others.

“The next step is to agree with which political party will hold the prime ministership and if the members of Parliament who are in those parties sign the pact it will be okay, but if they disagree there will be a problem,” Bule said.

Second coalition
A second coalition has now emerged in Vanuatu following last week’s election.

This one involves the Vanua’aku Pati, the Rural Development Party, the Iauko group, the National United Party, the People’s Unity Development Party and the Reunification of the Movement for Change, or some members of these parties.

A number, including the RMC, are also party to the pact signed by the earlier coalition grouping.

The leaders of that first grouping, which is in camp at the Sunset Bungalow Resort, claim they retain the numbers for a majority in the 52 member house.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Talks among Vanuatu political parties have started for the formation of a coalition government following Thursday’s snap election.

The talks have started as it appears that none of the political parties which contested the ballot won a simple majority in the 52-seat Parliament.

Sources from former government, and former opposition members have revealed that leaders of political parties who have won seats in Parliament following unofficial results have begun negotiations for the formation of a new government.

They said that so far both sides wanted to form a new government, but it would depend very much on the numbers that they have secured.

Ballot boxes from isolated areas in Vanuatu had not yet reached the main centres to be shipped to the capital, Port Vila.

A helicopter was yesterday still collecting the ballot boxes from isolated areas in the constituency of Santo.

According to political analysts, the lobby for the formation of a new government would not be easy because — according to the unofficial results — four former prime ministers had managed to be re-elected as members of Parliament.

They said that all four would want to be prime minister again.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Forty nine regional and international observers have arrived in Vanuatu to monitor the running of the country’s snap election tomorrow.

The election was triggered after the dissolution of the country’s Parliament on August 19 by President Nikenike Vurobaravu, and on the eve of a motion of no-confidence against the now caretaker prime minister Bob Loughman.

More than 300,000 people are expected to cast their vote in the snap election.

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Edward Kaltamat, has confirmed observers from Australia, China, Fiji, France, Kiribati, Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat, New Zealand, Pacific Islands Forum, United Kingdom and the United Nations are in the country.

Kaltamat said their presence will provide confidence to the voters on the transparency and credibility of the election.

The 49 observers have signed their code of conduct to guide them while they are in the field.

Kaltamat said some of them would stay in the capital to monitor the elections in Port Vila and the Efate constituency, and some would be deployed in the islands.

He said the observers will be briefed before being sent to the islands by aircraft.

This is not the first time that international observers have monitored an election in Vanuatu.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz