General elections were held in

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

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 In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

were elected from eight single-member constituencies and ten multi-member constituencies (of between two and seven seats) by

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

and

single non-transferable vote Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote. Being a semi-proportional variant of first-past-the-post voting, under SNTV small parties, as well as large parties, have a chance t ...

, respectively.

Campaign

The Vanua'aku Pati launched its campaign slogan 'Lets Rebuild Vanuatu' in June 2019 and endorsed the continuation of its Kambak ("come back") policy. In October 2019, a 'Vot Woman' campaign was launched, supporting all female candidates and calling for guaranteed 50% representation for women in parliament. No women were elected in the

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2016 elections Africa Benin Republic *2016 Beninese presidential election 6 March 2016 Cape Verde * 2016 Cape Verdean presidential election 2 October 2016 Chad * 2016 Chadian presidential election 10 April 2016 Djibouti * 2016 Djiboutian presidential ...

. There were around 15 female candidates, but none were elected. The youngest woman candidate in 2020 was Litiana Kalsrap. An important issue was the future of the lucrative but controversial citizenship by investment, or “passport sales” programs. For a price of about US $150,000, these schemes allow applicants to become citizens in months, without setting foot in the country.

Results

Although there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the islands, there were concerns that fears of the pandemic could keep turnout low. Turnout at the previous election was about 57%.Coronavirus fears and controversial passport sales: Vanuatu's election explained
by Tess Newton Cain, The Guardian, 17 Mar 2020 Unofficial results were gradually released over the following days, with official results being announced later than usual, on 6 April, due to the death of the Chairman of the Vanuatu Electoral Commission, Martin Tete. No women were elected. Nineteen parties won one or more seats, with the Land and Justice Party becoming the largest with nine of the 52 seats. Turnout was down six percentage points from the prior elections in 2016.

By constituency

Aftermath

Due to the delay in announcing the official results, Parliament was unable to meet for its first sitting within the normal period of 21 days after the election, and instead met for the first time on 20 April. During the first meeting, Gracia Shadrack of the Leaders Party of Vanuatu was elected Speaker. Bob Loughman of the Vanua'aku Pati was elected Prime Minister, defeating former foreign minister Ralph Regenvanu of the Land and Justice Party by 31 votes to 21. Loughman's coalition government included the Vanua'aku Pati, the Union of Moderate Parties, the National United Party and other minor parties. The next day Loughman appointed the members of his government.

Subsequent by-elections

2021 Pentecost by-election

Caused by the conviction of incumbent Charlot Salwai for perjury. He was pardoned by President Tallis Obed Moses, allowing him to run for the seat. The election was held on 8 October 2021. It was won by Sumptoh Blaise Tabisurin of the Rural Development Party.

References

{{Vanuatuan elections

Parliamemtary Elections in Vanuatu

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...