Rural Development Party (RDP) is a political party 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 ...

. It was formed as a renaming of the

Iauko Group The Iauko Group ( bi, Iauko Grup) or Eagle Group is a political party in Vanuatu. History The party was established by Harry Iauko after he left the Vanua'aku Pati prior to the 2012 general elections.Tom Lansford (2015) ''Political Handbook of t ...

(IG) in 2014 and then as a separate party in 2020.

Background

On 11 December 2014, two years after the death of founder

Harry Iauko Harry Iauko (died 10 December 2012"State fu ...

, the

(IG) was also known as the Rural Development Party (RDP). MPs in 2015 that associated with RDP included: Tony Ngari (party leader), Hosea Nevu, Thomas Laken. John Amos, Jonas James, and Pascal Iauko. MPs Samsen Samson and Havo Moli have also declared affiliations with RDP. The party supported the governments of

Sato Kilman Meltek Sato Kilman Livtuvanu (born 30 December 1957) is a Vanuatuan politician. He was Prime Minister of Vanuatu on four occasions, most recently from June 2015 to February 2016. Kilman was previously Prime Minister from December 2010 to April 20 ...

In 2017, RDP members signed a solidarity pact with the

Leaders Party of Vanuatu The Leaders Party of Vanuatu (LPV) is a political party in Vanuatu. History The party was formed in 2015 by Jotham Napat, a former director general of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities. In the 2016 elections the party fielded f ...

(LPV) in front of

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 ...

Charlot Salwai, reaffirming support for the coalition government. Members at that time included MP Jay Ngwele, Tom Nouam and Kalo Pakoa. They also supported 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 ...

(VP) in 2018. The CIA

World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...

2016-2019 profiles show they were still part of IG.

Split from Iauko Group

In January 2020, Ngwele resigned as MP and would be later appointed in April to then Minister of Infrastructure and Public Utilities in prime minister

Bob Loughman Bob Loughman Weibur (born 8 March 1961) is a Vanuatuan politician who served as Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu between April 2020 and November 2022.

's administration. For the

2020 Vanuatuan general election General elections were held in Vanuatu on 19–20 March 2020. The elections were initially intended to be held on 19 March, but logistical problems resulted in some areas voting the following day. Electoral system The 52 members of Parliament w ...

, they ran as a separate party from Iauko Group. On 18 October 2022, following the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, which was a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

, it was reported that RDP, IG, VP, and National United Party (NUP) were not included in the signing of the pact for the new government formation.

References

{{party-stub Political parties in Vanuatu Political parties established in 2020 2020 establishments in Oceania