Wonder if Jurisich has advised owner of Deep Water Recovery, Robert Bohn, of his actions of robbery, intimidation, bullying and harassment here in ole Union Bay? Surely, the law firm representing Deep Water Recovery would have advised Robert Bohn. What’s he going to do?
Poor Vanuatu – must be one hell of a job fighting corruption there. The following was prior to their 2016 election.
… more than a quarter of MPs were jailed in a corruption scandal.
Vanuatu Polls Set to Deliver Shakeup: reports
https://amp.rfi.fr/en/vanuatu-polls-set-deliver-shakeup-reports
The Vanuatu political landscape appeared to be in for a shakeup, reports said Saturday, following a snap election called after more than a quarter of MPs were jailed in a corruption scandal.
Unofficial results from Friday’s vote indicated a number of long-serving politicians, including former justice minister Robert Bohn and former parliament speaker Philip Boedoro, were set to lose their seats, according to news media reports.
The official results may not be available until early next week after all ballots from outlying islands have been taken to the capital Port Vila for counting, Vanuatu Daily Post journalist Jonas Cullwick told AFP.
Writing in the Post, Cullwick said newcomers “make up most of the provisional results” he had received.
Fourteen MPs from the 52-seat parliament, including the deputy prime minister, were jailed last year in a corruption scandal which put the international spotlight on the integrity of Vanuatu lawmakers.
The political breakdown in Port Vila follows a period of instability with four changes of prime ministers in the past four years.
More than 260 candidates from 36 parties took part in the elections on Friday with many of the parties formed in the wake of the scandal.
None of the parties were contesting more than 26 seats, however, meaning Vanuatu was set to emerge with a coalition government.
“This election may herald generational change in Vanuatu politics,” Anna Kirk, a research associate in the Melanesia Program at Sydney’s Lowy Institute think-tank, wrote on Friday.
“What is certain is that a new coalition government will assume power in Vanuatu as no one party can win sufficient votes to govern in their own right.”
The constitutional crisis erupted last year when the 14 lawmakers were convicted on bribery charges and hastily tried to pardon themselves.
President Baldwin Lonsdale was overseas at the time and restored the convictions on his return, vowing “to clean up the mess”.
The original bribery allegations centred on payments of 35 million vatu ($312,000) made by Deputy Prime Minister Moana Carcasses to 13 other politicians while they were all in opposition.
Vanuatu, which gained independence in 1980 and has an estimated population of more than 270,000, is still recovering from a deadly category five storm in March that destroyed homes and crops and contaminated water supplies.
Here’s the results of the 2016 election – Note: not all data copied from the tables – click link below to access.
Former Justice Minister Robert Bohn lost his seat.
2016 Vanuatuan general election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Vanuatuan_general_election
General elections were held in Vanuatu on 22 January 2016. The previous elections occurred in October 2012. The president of Vanuatu, Baldwin Lonsdale, dissolved the Parliament of Vanuatu in November 2015.[1] This occurred after the conviction of 14 parliamentarians for bribery. The convicted MPs include former Prime Ministers Serge Vohor and Moana Carcasses Kalosil. The president called for a snap election to form a new government.
Background[edit]
Vanuatu has a unicameral parliament with 52 Members of Parliament. The people elect their members by voting for one candidate. In multi-member constituencies, Vanuatu uses the single non-transferable vote system and in single-member districts, first-past-the-post voting is used.[2] Each parliamentarian holds office for a term of 4 years. In Vanuatu, there are eight single-member districts and nine multi-seat constituencies. The district magnitude of multi-seat constituencies has a range of two members to seven members for each constituency. Citizens elect the President of Vanuatu and the government elects the Prime Minister of Vanuatu.
Historically, the Vanuatuan government and society divided itself along linguistic lines. The Vanua’aku Party represented the Anglophone interests and the Union of Moderate Parties represented the Francophone interests.[3] Over time the linguistic divide has diminished as Vanuatu established a stronger national identity post-independence. Party allegiances have become less strong as factions split and formed new political parties.
In recent years more than 30 parties have won seats in the Vanuatuan parliament.[4] A ruling government needs to have a majority of parliamentarians to pass legislation and effectively rule. Consequently, coalitions are necessary to govern in Vanuatu. Coalitions often struggle to find a common legislative agenda to lead the nation which can be a cause of political instability. Following the 2012 Vanuatu election, there were five successive Cabinets of Vanuatu which were either formed after votes of no-confidence or after members had deserted the cabinet for the opposition.
Clientelism has been a problem in Vanuatuan politics since the country’s independence in 1980.[3] Often the lines between clientelism and corruption in Vanuatu have been ill-defined. The successful conviction of 14 MPs, including two former prime ministers, for bribery was one of the largest steps taken to combat corruption. The Supreme Court found that while in the opposition in 2014, former prime minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil bribed parliamentarians with 35 million vatu (US$300,000) to support a no-confidence motion. He then became deputy Prime Minister in Sato Kilman’s Cabinet. The court convicted Carcasses and the other 13 parliamentarians, including the Speaker Marcellino Pipite, for offering and receiving bribes; they sentenced the MPs in November 2015 to three years in jail and banned them from public office for 10 years.[5] As this verdict was delivered while President Lonsdale was out of the country, the speaker assumed the role of the president and issued pardons for all involved including himself. Lonsdale overturned the pardons when he returned to Vanuatu the following day. As several of the convicted parliamentarians were members of the Cabinet of Vanuatu, Prime Minister Sato Kilman was unable to effectively rule. Kilman was not able to form a new government – nearly 1/3 of MPs were in jail – which led to governmental gridlock causing the Parliament to be dissolved by the president. The traditional chiefs of Vanuatu – the Malvatumauri – called for calm during this process and asked that the people allow for the legal process to unfold, suggesting that their power is mostly ceremonial and is limited politically.[5] Following this failure to form a new government, Lonsdale called a snap election for 22 January 2016.
Campaign[edit]
The official campaign began on 5 January 2016. A total of 261 candidates contested the elections, including 68 independents and 193 representing 36 political parties.[6] The convicted MPs were not permitted to run as one cannot run for office in Vanuatu if they have a criminal conviction.[7] Candidates who could afford to pay for airtime dominated mainstream media during the campaign; social media played an important role in this election.[8] Only 10 women contested seats in this election and youth engagement in the campaign and election appears to have increased from 2012 but remained low.[8]
Conduct[edit]
Polls opened throughout the country on 22 January at 7:30AM and closed at 4:30PM.[9] To facilitate high turnout levels, the government declared the day a public holiday. Schools, churches and other public centers transformed into polling stations. The Commonwealth and the Melanesian Spearhead Group observed the election to ensure electoral integrity.
Both groups of international observers remarked that turnout was low. The process of voting in Vanuatu works as follows: People who are 18 and above can vote if they have a voter card. The details are verified twice with the citizen then given an envelope with a sheet with the name, picture and political party symbol on a piece of paper. Each candidate had a different colored sticky paper attachment. In the voting booth, the voter identifies their preferred candidate, rips off the corresponding piece of paper and puts it into the envelope. The envelope is then dropped into a ballot box. The voter then retrieves their voter card and their thumb is inked. Voters are also able to proxy vote for two others while they cast their own vote.[9]
The election day was peaceful and orderly.[10] Voters headed to the polls early. Women and youth turned out to vote in high numbers. The conduct at polling stations did not vary around the country, suggesting relatively sufficient following of electoral rules.
After the polls closed at 4:30PM, the workers at the polling stations counted the ballots. As Vanuatu employs the first-past-the-post system and the single non-transferable vote system, the process of counting the votes was straightforward. Each candidate’s number of votes were tallied and sent to the independently run Vanuatu Electoral Commission who announced the winners for each parliamentary seat.[9]
The Electoral Integrity Project, an academic group that aims to quantify the integrity of elections worldwide, studied Vanuatu’s 2016 election. By asking experts on Vanuatuan politics to rank the integrity of various electoral issues, the group found that the election was generally fair and just. However, they also suggest in their rankings that voters may have been bribed and that some may have received cash for votes. It was found likely that politicians offered patronage to voters, confirming at least some clientelism in Vanuatuan politics.
Results[edit]
As candidates only need to receive more votes than their competitor, all MPs were elected with 41% or less of the vote.[11] All parties received less than 15% of the vote. The races were extremely tight – in the constituency of Paama, MP Fred William Tasso won his seat by seven votes.[12] Multiple new political parties won seats in this Parliament and the percentage of votes roughly equaled the percentage of seats granted.
In the official results, the Melanesian Progressive Party obtained one seat at the Éfaté constituency; however, weeks later the Court ordered a recount of the ballots and awarded the disputed seat to the Land and Justice Party.[13]
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanua’aku Pati | 13,463 | 11.91 | 6 | –2 | |
| Union of Moderate Parties | 10,999 | 9.73 | 6 | +1 | |
| Land and Justice Party | 8,376 | 7.41 | 7 | +3 | |
| National United Party | 6,196 | 5.48 | 4 | 0 | |
| People’s Progressive Party | 5,469 | 4.84 | 1 | –5 | |
| Iauko Group | 4,979 | 4.40 | 4 | +1 | |
| Vanuatu National Development Party | 4,942 | 4.37 | 2 | New | |
| Vanuatu Presidential Party | 4,234 | 3.74 | 1 | +1 | |
| Nagriamel | 4,128 | 3.65 | 3 | 0 | |
| Reunification Movement for Change | 3,887 | 3.44 | 3 | 0 | |
| Natatok Indigenous People’s Democratic Party | 3,024 | 2.67 | 1 | –1 | |
| Green Confederation | 2,851 | 2.52 | 2 | –1 | |
| Leaders Party of Vanuatu | 2,459 | 2.17 | 1 | New | |
| Vanuatu Republican Party | 1,975 | 1.75 | 0 | –1 | |
| Vanuatu Labour Party | 1,780 | 1.57 | 1 | +1 | |
| Vanuatu Liberal Democratic Party | 1,565 | 1.38 | 0 | –1 | |
| Friend Melanesian Party | 1,465 | 1.30 | 1 | +1 | |
| Vanuatu National Party | 1,284 | 1.14 | 0 | –1 | |
| Unity for Change | 1,261 | 1.12 | 0 | New | |
| Hope Party | 1,180 | 1.04 | 0 | New | |
| People’s Services Party | 1,032 | 0.91 | 1 | 0 | |
| Melanesian Progressive Party | 992 | 0.88 | 0 | –2 | |
| Moderate Alliance Party | 701 | 0.62 | 0 | New | |
| Vanuatu Progressive Development Party | 597 | 0.53 | 0 | –1 | |
| Vanuatu New Vision in Development Party | 447 | 0.40 | 0 | New | |
| Tafea Moderate Alliance | 429 | 0.38 | 0 | New | |
| Vanuatu Progressive Republican Farmer Party | 355 | 0.31 | 0 | New | |
| United Liberation Front | 327 | 0.29 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vanuatu Democratic Party | 327 | 0.29 | 0 | 0 | |
| Leaders Party for Change | 322 | 0.28 | 0 | New | |
| Vete Alliance | 306 | 0.27 | 0 | New | |
| Vemarana | 304 | 0.27 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vanuatu Family First Party | 211 | 0.19 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vanuatu Community Reform Party | 157 | 0.14 | 0 | New | |
| People’s Action Party | 80 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vanuatu United and Equal Rights Part | 47 | 0.04 | 0 | New | |
| Vanuatu Democratic Alliance and Liberation Party for Change | 8 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independents | 20,904 | 18.49 | 8 | +4 | |
| Total | 113,063 | 100.00 | 52 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 113,063 | 99.00 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 1,141 | 1.00 | |||
| Total votes | 114,204 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 200,159 | 57.06 | |||
| Source: Vanuatu Daily |
Aftermath[edit]
As there was not a clear majority of seats won by a single political party, parliamentarians from eight political parties and independent groups created a coalition to form a government.[14] This coalition called for Charlot Salwai, a francophone, to be elected as Prime Minister on 11 February 2016. The opposition did not oppose this motion and Salwai was elected Prime Minister of Vanuatu by parliamentary vote.[14] He declared his Cabinet the following day.
| Portfolio | Minister | Party |
|---|---|---|
| Prime Minister | Charlot Salwai | Reunification of Movements for Change |
| Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Trade | Joe Natuman | Vanua’aku Pati |
| Minister for Internal Affairs | Alfred Maoh | Graon mo Jastis Party |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | Bruno Leingkone | National United Party |
| Minister for Finance | Gaetan Pikioune | Nagriamel |
| Minister for Lands | Ralph Regenvanu | Graon mo Jastis Party |
| Minister for Public Utilities | Jotham Napat | Leaders Party of Vanuatu |
| Minister for Justice | Ronald Warsal | Vanua’aku Pati |
| Minister for Climate Change | Ham Lini | National United Party |
| Minister for Education | Jean-Pierre Nirua | Independent |
| Minister for Health | Toara Daniel | Vanuatu Green Confederation |
| Minister for Youth and Sport | Norris Jack Kalmet | Union of Moderate Parties |
| Minister for Agriculture | Seremaia Matai | Independent |
| Source: Vanuatu Daily Digest[15] |
Subsequent by-elections[edit]
2016 Malo/Aore by-election[edit]
A by-election was called in June 2016 to elect an MP for the Malo/Aore constituency after the death of Havo Molisale. Uri Warawara of the Land and Justice Party defeated Bani Livo, an independent candidate.[16]
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uri Warawara | Land and Justice Party | 659 | 29.56 | |
| Bani Livo | Independent | 476 | 21.35 | |
| Moli Juri Havo | Independent | 322 | 14.45 | |
| George Andre Wells | Independent | 291 | 13.06 | |
| Makali Baniuri | Nagriamel | 242 | 10.86 | |
| Toka Moliavea | People’s Progressive Party | 183 | 8.21 | |
| Harold Warahese | Independent | 56 | 2.51 | |
| Total | 2,229 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 2,229 | 97.25 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 63 | 2.75 | ||
| Total votes | 2,292 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 3,620 | 63.31 | ||
| Majority | 183 | 8.21 | ||
| Source: Vanuatu Daily Post[17][18] |
2019 Efate Rural by-election[edit]
Caused by the death of incumbent MP Jerry Kanas (elected as an independent before joining Leaders Party of Vanuatu).[19] Held on 2 September 2019, it resulted in a victory for Edwin Kalorisu of the Leaders Party.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edwin Kalorisu | Leaders Party of Vanuatu | 1,768 | 23.57 | |
| Timothy Thomas | Reunification Movement for Change | 1,411 | 18.81 | |
| William Malas | New Nation Party | 1,215 | 16.20 | |
| Stanley Kaltoi John | Vanua’aku Pati | 1,025 | 13.67 | |
| Michael Taravaki | Vanuatu Liberal Movement | 976 | 13.01 | |
| John Tavasei Alfred | Land and Justice Party | 946 | 12.61 | |
| Fateful Zakari | People’s Progressive Party | 159 | 2.12 | |
| Total | 7,500 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 7,500 | 98.31 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 129 | 1.69 | ||
| Total votes | 7,629 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 32,607 | 23.40 | ||
| Majority | 357 | 4.76 | ||
| Source: Vanuatu Electoral Office[20] |
Here’s some more: https://fca.vu/about-financial-centre-vanuatu/ Thought this sentence was worth noting: “The FCA is proud to have its members recognised in Vanuatu and internationally for their honesty, integrity and skills.” I guess they’re skipping those values for Union Bay.
FINANCIAL CENTRE ASSOCIATION
OF VANUATU
Chairman | Vice Chairman | Secretary | Treasury | Member | Member | |
| 2023 | Martin St-Hilaire | James Hudson | Gilian Attapattu | Mathilde Augerd | Thomas M. Bayer | |
| 2022 | Martin St-Hilaire | James Hudson | Gilian Attapattu | Mariana Lal | Mark Stafford | Laurie Harrison |
| 2021 | Martin St-Hilaire | Mark Stafford | Thomas M. Bayer | Damien Mullins | Flora Geodefroit | |
| 2020 | Martin St-Hilaire | Dan Agius | Thomas M. Bayer | Mark Stafford | Robert M. Bohn | |
| 2019 | Martin St-Hilaire | Robert M. Bohn | Thomas M. Bayer | Damien Mullins | Loic Bernier | |
| 2018 | Martin St-Hilaire | David Hudson | Thomas M. Bayer | Robert M. Bohn | Dan Agius | |
| 2017 | Martin St-Hilaire | David Hudson | Thomas M. Bayer | Robert M. Bohn | Dan Agius | |
| 2016 | Martin St-Hilaire | David Hudson | Thomas M. Bayer | Jean Frederic gagné | Mark Stafford | |
| 2015 | Robert M. Bohn | Gayle Stapleton | Thomas M. Bayer | Jean Frederic gagné | Maxwell McGill | |
| 2014 | Robert M. Bohn | Gayle Stapleton | Thomas M. Bayer | Martin St-Hilaire | Mark Stafford | |
| 2013 | Robert M. Bohn | David Hudson | Thomas M. Bayer | Martin St-Hilaire | Mark Stafford | |
| 2012 | Robert M. Bohn | Mark Stafford | Thomas M. Bayer | Martin St-Hilaire | Keith Hango | |
| 2011 | Mark Stafford | Robert M. Bohn | Thomas M. Bayer | Martin St-Hilaire | Keith Hango |
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