New Vanuatu parliament congested with parties

Transcript

Final results from Vanuatu's snap election have been released by the country's Electoral Commission, confirming the make-up of another fragmented parliament.

In the new 52-seat parliament, there are 17 political parties - although eight of these have just one MP.

Johnny Blades has been monitoring the final outcomes. Johnny, this is a real mishmash of political players.

JOHNNY BLADES: Yeah, a real fruit salad. You know, this isn't new for Vanuatu because it has had fragmented parliaments the last few terms but this time it will be a scramble to form a coalition government. They already knew that a coalition government was going to be on the cards, but you've got the situation where there is three parties with six MPs each. That's the Vanu'aku party, the Union of Moderates party, and the Graon Mo Jastis party. And I'm not sure that the three of them are all together - I think the Vanu'aku party and the Graon Mo Jastis party signed a sort of agreement a few months back that they would work together. But they may need the Union of Moderates Party to join them and the UMP have sort of been serial side swappers in recent parliaments so you know the independents and small parties will all come into play and it just makes it complicated.

MARY BAINES: Are the coalitions usually formed around an ideological basis?

JB: Not really. It's usually just about people sort of jostling for position and often these smaller parties can make quite extravagant claims for high positions within a cabinet. I mean you've got a situation where Sato Kilman, who was was the previous prime minister, the caretaker prime minister, his People's Progress Party only had a few MPs and yet there he was. And this time around he's only won one seat, his party, that's his seat, but you'd be loathed to sort of rule him out. There are a few parties which actually do have cohesive policies and I note they are ones like the Vanu'aku party and the Graon Mo Jastis Party which talk about the need for political reform. I think that could be one of the factors which galvinises a solid bloc. Because one of the things they want is to stop all the side swapping, all the political instability which has plagued Vanuatu in recent years. That could be a galvinising factor as the negotiations to form a government proceed in the next few days.

MB: I guess you'd be reluctant to predict who might emerge as prime minister?

JB: Yeah. You know, you wouldn't put money on it because it just could be any of a number of people. Some of the names you could mention are the Vanu'aku party leader Joe Natuman, he was the prime minister a year or so ago before Kilman rolled him. And then there's the Graon Mo Jastis Party leader Ralph Regenvanu who I think as we have seen, he's really appealed to young ni-Vanuatu. It's his third term now so he's not inexperienced anymore and he's got six MPs behind him and it's quite likely he will be in the mix. But then there's the likes of Sato Kilman, you would never rule him out, and Ham Lini, who despite preliminary results saying he hadn't won up in Pentecost, he did manage to get the last of the four Pentecost seats. So he is back in the mix, his party has four MPs. He's another one who might emerge. We will just have to wait and see. Next Monday is when the parliament convenes. They will elect the prime minister then and the shape of the new government will become clear.