AAP – Just one woman has been elected in Vanuatu’s election, which looks likely to have returned the previous government prior to the snap poll.
A five-way coalition government featuring caretaker prime minister Charlot Salwai, climate advocate Ralph Regenvanu and popular force Jotham Napat is likely to form in the coming days.
It is yet to be seen who will lead the coalition as the next prime minister.
On Wednesday night, the Vanuatu Elections Office (VEO) revealed the final count for the January 16 election.
The last fortnight was spent ferrying the ballots from across the 80 islands that form the Melanesian nation’s archipelago to the capital, Port Vila, where votes were re-counted and verified.
Voters have again returned a minority parliament, with 12 parties represented according to the VEO.
The sole female MP from the last parliament – Gloria Julia King – missed out, however Marie Louise Milne, the deputy Port Vila deputy mayor was successful in her bid.
She will be the only woman in the 52-seat parliament.
The gender disparity is nothing new for Vanuatu, which went more than a decade without a female MP until Ms King’s election in 2022.
With nine MPs and another two affiliates, the Napat-led Leaders Party of Vanuatu (LPV) has the most MPs in the 52-seat house.
An established partnership between the LPV, Salwai’s Reunification Movement for Change party and Mr Regenvanu’s Land and Justice Party, with five MPs each, fell short of a majority.
However, in closed-door negotiations since the poll, the group has won the support of the Vanua’aku Party, with seven seats, and the Eagle Group, with six seats, to form a five-way coalition of 32 MPs.
“The real test will be how these parties manage their relationships and whether they can hold together through the challenges of governance,” the Vanuatu Daily Post wrote this week.
“With such a diverse set of political backgrounds … there could be differences in policy priorities.”
Instability is a defining feature of ni-Vanuatu politics in recent decades.
Changing allegiances and regular no-confidence motions have produced 20 changes of prime minister this century.
Those forces combined to send voters to the polls this month, with Salwai opting for the dissolution of parliament rather than face a challenge to his leadership from the opposition.
While Salwai was returned in his Pentecost constituency, he is no certainty to return as prime minister as the government positions are renegotiated after each poll and the parties are thrashing those decisions out.
While there were fears of a reduced turnout given voter apathy and last month’s devastating 7.3-magnitude earthquake, the VEO reported healthy turnout with over 148,000 votes cast, up from 133,000 in the last election.
