22 Jun 2017

Vanuatu to select president next month

1:35 pm on 22 June 2017

An electoral college will convene to select a new president of Vanuatu on July 3.

The head of state position was left vacant after President Baldwin Lonsdale died on Saturday.

According to a writ issued by the chief justice, nominations for presidential candidates can be filed before next Wednesday.

Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale speaks during an interview with Agence France-Presse in his hotel room minutes before his departure to return home after attending the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai on March 16, 2015.

Father Baldwin Lonsdale died on Saturday Photo: AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura

The electoral college will then vote to nominate a candidate.

The college consists of the 52 members of parliament, the presidents of local government councils and the mayors of Vanuatu's three municipalities.

In 2014, the electoral college went through eight rounds of voting before President Lonsdale received the outright majority needed to become president.