New parties may help

government

Vanuatu Foreign Minister Sela Molisa cast some light on his nation’s elections, expected in November.

Mr Molisa is an MP and will run for election this year. He is one of five members from the rural district of his native island, Santo. While nationally the Govern ment has 25 seats to the opposition’s 13 (one seat is vacant) the opposition holds three of the five seats in Mr Molisa’s district.

The forthcoming election has spawned several new opposition parties (PIM February p 10) and the question naturally arises how this will effect the election results. If each opposition party competed for every seat it would enhance the Government’s chances considerably through vote splitting.

Vanuatu also has Britain’s first-past-the-post system of voting (instead of the French proportional representa

tion) and this would seem to suggest an easy victory for a united government opposed by a divided opposition. But multi-member districts make it easier for the opposition to coalesce.

Five opposition parties, for example, could agree on a platform of five, representing each of the parties, in rural Santo. Similarly in the urban Santo district, where two members will be elected, two parties could coalesce around a joint platform.

To a very real extent, then, the outcome of the November election will be foreshadowed well before that when the candidates are nominated. Thirty-nine opposi tion candidates would spell much more trouble for the Government, than 78 of them; 117 opposition nominees (an average of three per seat) would probably assure the

Lini Government another term in office.

North.

David S.