General elections were held in

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

on 2 December 1991. Ni-Vanuatu voters were invited to elect the 46 members of the

national Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

. At the time of the elections,

Walter Lini Walter Hadye Lin̄i (1942 – 21 February 1999) was a Raga Anglican priest and politician who was the first Prime Minister of Vanuatu, from independence in 1980 to 1991. He was born at Agatoa village, Pentecost Island. On his mother's side ...

of the

Vanua'aku Pati The Vanua'aku Pati () is a democratic socialist political party in Vanuatu. History The party was founded on 17 August 1971 by Walter Lini as the New Hebridean Cultural Association, renamed later that same year as the New Hebrides National Party ...

had been

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

for eleven years and the country's only leader since independence in 1980. Several months before the elections, he was replaced by

Donald Kalpokas Donald Masike'Vanua Kalpokas (23 August 1943 – 20 March 2019) was a Vanuatuan politician and diplomat who twice served as Prime Minister of Vanuatu. Biography Kalpokas was born on Efate island. Along with Walter Lini, he founded the Vanua'aku ...

as leader of the Vanua'aku Pati, and formed his own National United Party. Seven parties contested the election. The

Union of Moderate Parties The Union of Moderate Parties (french: Union des partis moderés) is a liberal political party in Vanuatu founded in 1981. At the last general election, held on 22 January 2016, they won 9.73% of the vote and 6 seats. It is currently headed by Ish ...

obtained 19 seats, the same number as during the previous election, but this time these were sufficient to place it in the lead. The Vanua'aku Pati and the National United Party obtained ten seats each, marking the VP's first electoral defeat. With no absolute majority, the

formed a ruling coalition with the NUP.

Maxime Carlot Korman Maxime Carlot Korman (born 26 April 1941) is a Vanuatuan politician, formerly serving as the speaker of the Parliament and formerly as acting president. He served as the prime minister of Vanuatu for nearly five years, first from 16 December 199 ...

(UMP) became Vanuatu's first

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

Prime Minister, with NUP co-founder

Sethy Regenvanu Pastor Sethy John Regenvanu (born 1945) is a politician in Vanuatu. He is one of several churchmen who have been active in Vanuatu politics, like Father Walter Lini, Rev. Frederick Karlomuana Timakata, and Father Gérard Leymang. Hailing from Uri ...

as deputy Prime Minister.MILES, William F.S., ''Bridging Mental Boundaries in a Postcolonial Microcosm: Identity and Development in Vanuatu'', Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998, , p.25 Voter turnout was 71%.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An expe ...

, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p842 The result was significant, as Vanuatu's previous post-independence governments had been oriented towards the Anglophone population. Prior to the 1991 elections, only ten percent of the Vanuatu administration was Francophone and no cabinet members had been Francophone since independence. Vanuatu's foreign policy had also been hostile to France.

Electoral system

Most

members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

were elected by

single non-transferable vote Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is an electoral system used to elect multiple winners. It is a generalization of first-past-the-post, applied to multi-member districts with each voter casting just one vote. Unlike FPTP, which is a single-winn ...

in multi-seat districts having two to six members each. Four members were elected through

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

in single-member constituencies.

Results

References

{{Vanuatuan elections

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Elections in Vanuatu

Electoral system

Results

See also

References