15 Jul 2004

Vanuatu election results now official

7:46 pm on 15 July 2004

Official election results from Vanuatu confirm that nine parties have won 44 of the 52 seats.

The three best performers are the biggest parties in recent parliaments, but none have a dominant number of seats.

Ham Lini's National United Party has the most MPs with ten; its close ally, the Vanuaaku Party has eight seats, though two of these are held by MPs said to be backing Serge Vohor's Union of Moderate Parties, which, officially, also has eight seats.

For the first time since the late 1980s women have been successful, with the Vanuaaku Party's Isabel Donald and Leinafau Tasso, an independent, taking both seats on the island of Epi.

The chief executive officer for the National Council of Women, Jenny Ligo, says there's been a lot of celebration, from both genders.

"Both of them have won the support of men. And actually, men were behind them to get them to parliament. And that is one of the greatest things, like in Vanuatu that a man can do for a woman"

Jenny Ligo, from the National Council of Women.