1 Nov 2012

Former Vanuatu PM Korman loses parliamentary seat

2:57 pm on 1 November 2012

A former Vanuatu prime minister is the highest profile casualty in this week's general election.

Unofficial results for the vast majority of the 52 seats are now known.

Johnny Blades reports from Port Vila.

"The former prime minister Maxime Carlot Korman has been an MP since Vanuatu gained independence in 1980 but in Tuesday's election he failed to win one of the four Efate Rural seats, being defeated by his own nephew Alfred Carlot among others. The writing was on the wall for Mr Korman when he recently lost the leadership of the Vanuatu Republican Party. Ousted by the party he created the firebrand politician was not the only former prime minister who failed to get re-elected with Barak Sope falling short in the Port Vila constituency where the leader of the new Ground and Justice Party, Ralph Regenvanu, scored a huge victory. But many of the old guard of Vanuatu politics have been re-elected and a former cabinet minister, Willie Jimmy, has become the first ever MP to get back into Parliament after losing his seat at the previous election. However none of the 17 female candidates who stood in this election have won a seat."