Vanuatu’s post-election

Election

Vanuatu’s post-election trade-horsing

By Patrick Decloitre

All parties started campaigning for general elections quite late this year, before the vote took place on November 30. The people had to elect their MPs in their respective constituen cies, to fill a new 50- seat chamber for the next four years. And for the second time in Vanuatu’s history, the next government has been formed by a coalition of parties.

The three main parties of Vanuatu’s political spectrum, Serge Vohor’s outgoing ruling Union of Moderate Parties (UMP), Donald Kalpokas’s opposition Unity Front (UF), a platform consisting of Kalpokas’s Vanuaaku Pati (VP), Barak Sope’s Melanesian Progressive Party (MPP) and Vincent Boulekone’s Tan Union (TU) and former Prime Minister Walter Lini’s National United Party (NUP), had started campaigning quite late this year.

Some new parties also emerged, like

the Vanuatu Labour Party, which fielded candidates, most of them well-known union leaders who took part in the 1994 general strike here, or the Vanuatu Women in Politics, who made their first appear ance on the political scene under their own label (Hilda Lini remains the only woman MP in the Vanuatu parliament).

More significantly, a so-called Independent Front, created a couple of months before elections, was one of the first tangible signs of a malaise within rul ing of Moderate Parties; tension was ris ing, the struggle for power was near. IF leader Patrick Crowby, a former UMP offi cial, dismissed from UMP earlier this year.

During the campaign, his main argument was to promote young leaders, whom, he stressed, were more capable, qualified and educated than the old guard of UMP pres ident Serge Vohor who labelled some UMP politicians holding high positions in government and parliament as -“out of

date” and “asleep”.

Another sign of UMP’s internal ten sions was the Supreme Court case about UMP’s official list of candidates: hours before closing date for candidates, two dif ferent lists were given to the Electoral Office. One came from UMP’s national executive committee, the other directly from Prime minister Maxime Carlot and his Finance minister Willie Jimmy.

One of the lists (the executive’s) favoured more young candidates, the other (Carlot’s) was more conservative and pre sented again most of the outgoing govern ment ministers in their respective con stituencies. The most controversial candi date was Port Vila mayor Alick Noel, who, as a popular character in his own town, directly threatened Carlot and Jimmy. It was Chief Justice Charles Vaudin d’lmecourt who had to rule in favour of the Prime Minister’s list. Young candidates backed by UMP’s executive, were finally

banned from using names, banners, emblems, slogans of UMP. They could, however, run as independents, which they eventually did. This was the first clash, an indirect one, between Carlot and Vohor.

In the lead-up to election day, the ten sion, especially in the island state’s capital, mounted. But, as usual, on November 30, voting took place calmly, in a solemn atmosphere. Under a burning sun, some 105,000 voters queued up in front of polling stations around the island state to choose between some 171 candidates.

Instructions had been given by the elec toral office to authorise presiding polling station officers to extend, if necessary, opening hours to enable everyone to cast their vote.

In fact, in two polling stations of Port Vila, voting went on until one and six o’clock into the morning of the following day. Nearly a round-the-clock vote. But, despite the effort, Port Vila (where incum bent Prime Minister Maxime Carlot and Finance Minister Willie Jimmy contested their seats again) was the only constituen cy where the turnout was relatively low, with only 51 per cent as opposed to an average 75 per cent turnout in every other constituency.

Electoral Commission Chairman Masing Lauru later explained the late vot ing was the result of a decision made in those polling stations where the number of registered voters was particularly high.

Lauru said it was recommended another polling station be created to speed up the voting process, but nothing was done about it by authorities. As the result of an insufficient number of ballot boxes and booths, people had to wait hours outside in the burning sun, and later under the moon

light.

“You can’t send a voter back home.

Otherwise, we were taking the risk they would not come back the next day. That’s why we decided to keep the stations open throughout the night”, Lauru explained.

Many parties later complained about irregularities on election day; some said voters who had a valid card were told at the polling station they were not on the electoral roll, allegations were made about electors voting twice: once in person, once by proxy. Others alleged campaigning went on even after the closing date, 24 hours before election day.

During campaigning, not surprisingly,

everyone claimed they would each get enough seats in parliament to have a sim ple majority and form a government with out anyone else’s help. But things turned

out quite differently.

Lini’s NUP, for instance, claimed throughout the campaign it was sure to win the elections: it only got nine seats in the 50-seat house (as opposed to eight in the former 46-seat chamber).

Kalpoka’s Unity Front, according to

official results here, got the highest num ber with 20 seats. UMP only got 17 seats, a lesser figure than the 20 seats they had in the previous, smaller house. Some angry UMP officials saw this as the result of internal quarrels within the party, which, by putting too many candidates in the same constituencies, split votes.

Two independent candidates were elected (a first in Vanuatu’s young history), and the two remaining seats went to two small parties, Nagriamel (1) and Fren Melanesian Party (1).

But the battle was particularly fierce after election day. With no one party hav ing enough seats to form a government, this was time for negotiations.

Within UMP, two teams started to negotiate separately, one led by Vohor, who announced a coalition agreement with Kalpokas on December 4 and 8. Vohor, claiming the support of some three other

UMP newly-elected parliament members,

had signed a memorandum of agreement portfolios out of 13, including the deputy prime ministership. On December 3, Vohor declared war to Carlot, saying the incumbent Prime Minister was no longer a member of UMP because he had negotiat ed on his own.

Carlot, with Jimmy, favoured a pact with Lini’s NUP: he and Jimmy signed a memorandum of understanding with for mer Prime Minister Walter Lini’s National united Party (NUP), to form a government in which UMP would get seven portfolios out of 11, including Prime ministership.

Earlier the same week, a so-called UMP “special council” convened by Carlot and his finance minister Willie Jimmy (also UMP treasurer) resolved to suspend Vohor as UMP president and to cancel the agreement signed with UF.

Vohor did not attend the meeting. One week before the first meeting of the new parliament, on December 18, UMP’s national council finally agreed to favour Carlot’s choice: Lini’s NUP, but without Carlot and to cancel Vohor’s preferred partner, Kalpokas. The superior interest of the party had been saved. “War, and all this, is now buried”, Vohor said, adding all former suspension decisions against him had been cancelled.

The island state’s next newly-elected parliament was to hold the first meeting of its four-year legislature next December 18, when members of the house were to elect a Prime Minister, who in turn, was to announce the composition of his govern ment.

Lini’s NUP was finally the referee in this post-elections game: it ended up with a choice of options between former ruling UMP and Kalpokas’s UF.

Whatever the choice will be, Walter Lini is likely to become Vanuatu’s deputy Prime Minister. ■