Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau is a

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 ...

an politician who has served as Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu since 4 November 2022. He is the head of 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 Is ...

Career

In 2005, Kalsakau was appointed the Legal Counsel of MCA Vanuatu, the Vanuatuan component of the

Millennium Challenge Corporation The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the U.S. Congress in 2004. It is an independent agency separate from the State Department and USAID. It provides grants to countries that ...

. Kalsakau was Attorney General of Vanuatu, but resigned the post to contest parliamentary elections. After he lost, he returned to his post of Attorney General, raising concerns from

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

. Following the 2012 general election, Kalsakau alleged that three ministers, including

Moana Carcasses Kalosil Moana Carcasses Kalosil (born 27 January 1963) is a Vanuatuan politician. He was Prime Minister of Vanuatu from March 2013 to May 2014. He was the first naturalized citizen of Vanuatu to become the country's prime minister. Carcasses was ouste ...

, engaged in

vote buying Vote buying (also referred to as electoral clientelism and patronage politics) occurs when a political party or candidate distributes money or resources to a voter in an upcoming election with the expectation that the voter votes for the actor handi ...

to secure several seats in

Port Vila Port Vila (french: Port-Vila), or simply Vila (; french: Vila; bi, Vila ), is the capital and largest city of Vanuatu. It is located on the island of Efate. Its population in the last census (2009) was 44,040, an increase of 35% on the pr ...

. In 2014, Kalsakau was re-appointed Attorney General of the Government of Vanuatu. Kalsakau was confirmed as Leader of the Opposition in February 2016.

Political positions

Kalsakau criticized a government proposal to introduce

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

to Vanuatu, leading a government spokesman to call on him to resign for "misleading statements". Kalsakau has expressed skepticism regarding increased

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

involvement in Vanuatu, as well as a lack of transparency regarding loans from China.

Family

Two of Kalsakau's brothers — Ephraim Kasakau and Joshua Kalasakau — were also elected as Members of Parliament in 2016. His father was First Chief Minister George Kalsakau, who was involved in negotiating Vanuatu's independence from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

References

Living people Members of the Parliament of Vanuatu Prime Ministers of Vanuatu Place of birth missing (living people) Union of Moderate Parties politicians Vanuatuan lawyers Year of birth missing (living people) {{Vanuatu-politician-stub