There was applause and a sense of relief in Vanuatu's parliament today as Tallis Obed Moses was voted in as Vanuatu's new President after a fourth round of voting.
Mr Moses, who had been a Presbyterian pastor, was sworn in this afternoon in a brief ceremony in parliament.
He was one of 16 people put forward for the role and emerged with two/thirds of the vote after three rounds of voting.
The media director of the Vanuatu Daily Post Dan McGarry was at parliament this morning for the vote. He spoke with Koroi Hawkins shortly after the result came through.
President-elect Tallis Obed Moses arrives at Parliament for his investiture.
Photo: Dan McGarry - Vanuatu Daily Post
Transcript
DAN McGARRY: Koroi it was a pretty exciting event actually we were standing in the media booth tallying the votes as they were called out one by one. You could hear audible gasps as the number crept closer and closer to the total and pastor Tallis Obed Moses still had not passed the final mark and it was only with the very last vote that was cast that he was finally able to hit the two-thirds majority that was required in order to become elected as president of Vanuatu.
KH: And a little bit about the new president what is his background?
DM: Well he is not a very widely known individual and I think that is why it took a little while for people to sort of reconcile themselves to that vote. He is a man of the church he was educated in bible college in his early years both in Australia and in Papua New Guinea. He was recently elected to be the moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu. A very widely regarded individual who by all accounts is quite an impressive figure when he is standing in the pulpit delivering his sermon and he is also widely reviewed as somebody who is of impeccable moral character and I think that ultimately was the decisive factor as people took the legacy of the late president Baldwin Lonsdale into account when they cast their votes.
KH: His predecessor was sort of an activist in a sort of ceremonial role, what can we expect [from Tallis]?
DM: Well I would hesitate to use Sir Baldwin Lonsdale's example as an indication of what the future of the presidency will hold only because he was president during such a controversial time. And it is very, very rare that we have seen events like the ones that he experienced during his tenure. However the role of the president according to the constitution is as a symbol of the unity of the people. In other words he is very much a uniting figure within Vanuatu, it is a largely ceremonial role, but he does, and this is crucial he does have the power of pardon and one of the considerations that was on everybody's minds was whether the next president would be able to issue pardons for those 14 former MPs who were convicted of corruption and bribery. And the fact that they elected somebody, you know a man of the church somebody very much cut from the same cloth as Baldwin Lonsdale seems to indicate that they have listened to the will of the people and decided that that is not necessarily going to be on the cards at the moment.
KH: And what is the feeling among the, probably there will be a few people gathered there I anticipate, what is the feeling on the ground?
DM: Well there was applause in the chamber as the result was finalised and I think it was h
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