Snap 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 13 October 2022 to elect all 52 seats in

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 ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Nikenike Vurobaravu Nikenike Vurobaravu (born 3 December 1951) is a Vanuatuan diplomat and politician who has served as President of Vanuatu since 23 July 2022. Previously having been employed in numerous diplomatic and government positions, including as the first ...

dissolved Parliament in August 2022 on advice of the Council of Ministers ahead of a no-confidence vote against

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

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.

Background

On 18 August 2022 the new president dissolved Parliament midway through the parliamentary term at the request of 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.

, who requested the dissolution to avoid a

no confidence vote A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit ...

. The motion sparked criticism from the opposition, with opposition leader

Ralph Regenvanu Ralph John Regenvanu (born 20 September 1970 in Suva, Fiji''Laef Blong Mi'', Sethy Regenvanu, op.cit., p. 76) is a Ni-Vanuatu anthropologist, artist and politician. He has been a Member of Parliament since September 2008, was a member of Cabin ...

announcing that the opposing parties would contest the dissolution in court.

Electoral system

The 52 members of

were elected for four years terms by

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 ...

in eighteen constituencies, ten of which were multi-member constituencies of between two and seven seats, while the remaining eight were single-member constituencies in which the vote takes the form of a

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 ...

system.

Results

By constituency

Aftermath

On 4 November Ishmael Kalsakau of the

UMP UMP may refer to: Science * Ultra metal-poor star, refers to a type of star with extremely low levels of heavier elements * Uniformly most powerful test, in statistical hypothesis testing * Uridine monophosphate, a nucleotide * Utility maximizat ...

, who has been the Deputy Prime Minister in the previous government, has been approved as Prime Minister after siding with the previous Leader of Opposition,

of the GJP. The parliamentary majority in support of Kalsaku is composed of members from 8 coalition partners: UMP, GJP, LPV, RMC, NUP, VNDP, PPP and LM, for a total of 30 MPs. Vanuatu elected its first woman parliament member in 14 years;

Gloria Julia King Gloria Julia King is a footballer, businesswoman, and politician in Vanuatu. In 2022, she was elected to the Parliament of Vanuatu, where she served until 2025. She was only the sixth woman in the country to become a member of Parliament. Biogr ...

Subsequent by-elections

2023 Malekula by-election

Caused by the criminal conviction of incumbent Sanick Asang. Despite this Asang was declared eligible and contested the snap election. The election was held on 7 September 2023.

2024 Ambrym by-election

the seat was vacated after Bruno Leingkone ( National United Party) missed three consecutive sittings of Parliament while receiving medical treatment in South Korea. The election was held on 14 March 2024.

References

{{Vanuatuan elections

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Elections in Vanuatu