Vanuatu snap election, happening now!!!

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EDGE OF MY SEAT

Baldwin Lonsdale dissolved parliament a  few months ago when like, a quarter of MP's were convicted for corruption. No word on turnout, although 55,000 voters on the rolls being, erm, deceased could present problems. Vanuatu has had 14 prime ministers in 15 years of independence, with no government serving for more than 13 months since 2012; so outgoing PM Kilman may be in shaky ground seeing as most of his time in office has been spent bickering about whether he was legally elected, his cabinet being mired in corruption and general bickering.

 lookss nice in the pictures though:

[Crumpets]

Who needs Politicus? Keep us posted!

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Holy molly, how it happened that we missed it?

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Lol, 2016 Kiribati elections also had no their own thread.

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Lol, 2016 Kiribati elections also had no their own thread.

sad times, but the head of government won't be chosen by the new Parliament till March. I presume Pillars of Truth won as per usual, but it's a bit mysterious.

I find these tiny Pacific Island countries' politics very cute tbh

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Elections in those countries need more attention and warm feelings from Atlas forum uses.

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The big divide is linguistic. Francophone parties tend to be conservative and wish to foster close relations with France (Union of Moderates) and the the anglophones are leftist and "anti-imperialists" (led by Vanua'aku Party).

Also odd fact: Vanuatu has a pretty strong green party (that isn't faking it like ... some ... green parties *hem* Mexico and the Baltics) and I think the first Green head of government in the world. That HoG is Moana Carcasses Kalosil who was one of the MP's arrested for corruption.

[Famous Mortimer]

Most Pacific island states have boring ass politics. Lots of non-partisan elections and tribal chiefs serving as presidents.

Vanuatu is different though, it's really quite crazy. They have French speaking parties and ethno-nationalist linguistic parties. Kind of like Fiji. Also at one point in the 80s the prime minister was best buds with Qadaffi.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

The big divide is linguistic. Francophone parties tend to be conservative and wish to foster close relations with France (Union of Moderates) and the the anglophones are leftist and "anti-imperialists" (led by Vanua'aku Party).

A pattern which is not that unusual in the world, although not usually given much attention because it gets way against certain stereotypes...

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Another very weird political phenomena probably unique to the islands is the John Frum Movement. If you've ever studied sociology, you may have come across the case of the cargo cults of Polynesia; and the worship of John Frum, a supposed black American WW2 soldier who will return to Vanuatu and deliver salvation is one of the more curious. They actually elected some members under the mame "john Frum" in 1998 ... then the trail goes dead (this is my original research just to be clear), but from what I can ascertain is highly connected with small traditional values party Nagrimel which is the cult of messanic religious leader Jimmy Stevens, who once collabarated with an American libertarian organisation and the government of France to carve out a libertarian tax haven in the South Pacific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_War

But Nagrimel and John Frum were to survive, and both would become owned by the sister of megarich (well, by Vanuatu standards anyway) Dinh Van Than, a Verinamese-Vanuatese businessman. But she was kicked out for coruption and Nagriamel is now owned by some chieftian.

(of course Frum isn't the only westerner revered by a cargo cult in the country. There is also the famous movement that worships Prince Philip, but they are less powerful politically)

[DavidB.]

[Antonio the Sixth]

Fascinating insights, CrabCake. I had no idea Vanuatu politics were as colorful.

[Asian Nazi]

Freedom Thread.  This is the type of content I come to Atlas for!

(not even being sarcastic, crabcake, this is pretty cool)

[Hatman 🍁]

You say Vanuatu has been independent for 15 years, but Wikipedia says it became independent in 1980.  I think I would've remembered Vanuatu becoming independent if it were only 15 years ago.

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My fingers may have slipped when I tried to hit the "2".

Anyway, this may be a positive election overall (despite the losy roll). All of the jailed MP's were denied the chance to reapply (in November, the whole country was plagued into a constitutional crisis when the indicted Speaker used constitional loopholes to try and award himself the power to pardon everyone; and that seems to have failed for him)

It will probably mean a return to power of Vanua'aka Pati, which was clean (that's the ground reports anyway).

[Hatman 🍁]

3. Vanuatu is 35 years old.