Politics: Kilman builds coalition for victory

Sato Kilman, the leader of Vanuatu’s People’s Progressive Party (PPP), has been returned to office as Prime Minister after national elections marred by claims of electoral irregularities.

Kilman drew support from Deputy Prime Minister Ham Lini of the National United Party (NUP) to build a coalition to return to government.

In a parliamentary vote on November 21, three weeks after the elections, Kilman won the Prime Ministership by 29 votes to 23, defeating opposition candidate Edward Natapei of the Vanua’aku Pati (VP). MPs also chose the PPP’s George Wells as Speaker of the Parliament.

In spite of efforts to monitor voting and promote awareness in the electorates by groups like Transparency Vanuatu and the Port Vila-based Pacific Institute for Public Policy (PiPP), the elections were tarnished by allegations of fraud and mismanagement.

The Principal Electoral Officer was replaced just as the campaign began and candidates objected to the misuse of proxy votes (with parties allegedly mobilising people to use proxies to vote in Port Vila, as well as in their home islands).

As we go to press, petitions have been lodged with the Court of Disputed Returns, including losing candidates who claim thousands of people voted in Port Vila from outside the municipal boundaries, while others were missed from the electoral roll.

In the aftermath of independence, Vanuatu politics was dominated by two parties—the Vanua’aku Pati (VP) and the largely francophone Union of Moderate Parties (UMP). But those days are long gone.

Coalition building

This election has highlighted the fragmentation of political institutions, with 34 parties and 63 independents contesting the elections. Many of the parties are little more than a name, with eight “parties” nominating just one candidate.

In the national vote, well-established parties came away with small but significant numbers of MPs, including VP (8 seats), PPP (6), UMP (5) and NUP (4). The new Graon mo Jastis Pati (GJP) also won four seats.
However, half the seats in the 52-seat Parliament were won by smaller parties and independents, and major parties had to negotiate to rally the 27 MPs required to form government.

On November 7, the opposition bloc announced a Solidarity Agreement between the VP, UMP, NUP, GJP, Nagriamel, Melanesian Progressive Party (MPP), Vanuatu Liberal Democratic Party (VLDP) and some independents.

The Solidarity Agreement announced “the desire to combat corruption and to restore confidence, stability and growth in the country.”

However the solidarity of this bloc was soon tested with public disagreements between the President and Vice President of NUP over which grouping to support. In the end, NUP’s Lini and the Nagriamel movement swung behind the Kilman coalition, giving it the numbers to form government.

After winning his parliamentary majority, Kilman reshuffled his cabinet and announced the creation of a new Ministry of Civil Aviation. In his second term as Prime Minister, Kilman now relies on support from the PPP, NUP, Green Confederation, Reunification of Movements for Change, Nagriamel Custom Movement and Vanuatu National Party.

Land and Justice

One feature of the elections was the breakthrough by the Graon mo Jastis Pati (GJP—Land and Justice), led by MP for Port Vila Ralph Regenvanu.

In the last elections in 2008, Regenvanu gained the largest number of votes of any candidate. The former director of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre served as Minister for Justice in the last Parliament, but lost his portfolio after speaking out against Vanuatu’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

In this year’s poll, he increased his majority in the capital Port Vila, outpolling all other candidates. This time, although it won fewer seats than well-established parties like VP, UMP or PPP, Graon mo Jastis broadened its base beyond Port Vila, winning seats on Santo, Malekula and in rural North Efate (while previous MPs on the main island have largely come from the south).

Regenvanu told ISLANDS BUSINESS that the GJP struck a chord with its emphasis that “we want to show a niufela fasin, a new style of leadership, a new way of acting as an MP.”

He said: “We chose all candidates based on criteria of long community service and no record of misuse of funds in any capacity—where they work or in the community. That struck a chord in these times of corruption.”

Regenvanu noted that GJP has built on work done by NGOs, the Vanuatu Cultural Centre and the Malvatumauri (National Council of Chiefs) on strengthening the custom economy: “One of the main areas we target is land reform, the fact that the tribe owns the land, which means that every person—child, young person, mother, father—is a landowner and they all have to be involved in decision making.

“The other main policy was to do with providing advice, training and appropriate education to help communities govern themselves,” he added.

“No one else was talking about that in the election. We were the people who popularised the idea of the four legs of the community: chiefs, church, youth and women.
Those four groups have to be involved in every aspect of management of any community, from village level to nation.”

Disputes over land

In spite of the focus on customary land in Vanuatu’s constitution, government decisions have been the main driver behind the alienation of land. Today, more the half the coastline of Efate has been sold or leased, especially to overseas investors from Australia and other nations.

In its last term, the Kilman government was widely criticised for idecisions over land policy, with then Minister for Lands Steven Kalsakau challenged over the sale of public land in breach of a 2010 Council of Ministers resolution which suspended state land sales.

The Minister was also criticised over the leasing of 2,300 hectares of land at Mangaliliu and Lelepa, an area larger than the capital.

Just days before Parliament chose a new Prime Minister, police began investigating a break-in at the Department of Lands. In the post-election reshuffle, Kalsakau has now been transferred to the education portfolio, with NUP’s James Bule taking over as Minister for Lands.

As incoming Minister for Foreign Affairs, Natatok president Alfred Carlot will also face debates over Vanuatu’s regional relations. Port Vila hosts the secretariat of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), which is preparing for the next MSG leaders summit in neighbouring New Caledonia.

West Papua

The first Kilman government transformed Vanuatu’s relations with Jakarta, with the December 2010 signing of a Vanuatu-Indonesia Development Co-operation Agreement.

In 2011, Indonesia also obtained observer status with the MSG. These moves dismayed the West Papua National Council for Liberation (WPNCL), which has an information office in Port Vila, especially as the agreement stresses Indonesian territorial integrity, sovereignty over West Papua and prohibits Vanuatu from interfering in Indonesia’s “internal affairs”.

Following the elections, the West Papua issue continues to cause public debate. The chair of the Vanuatu Christian Council, Bishop James Ligo, told the local Daily Post newspaper: “We cannot entertain somebody who kills our brothers and sisters. We will work with the new government to consult and pursue ways to free the people of West Papua who are getting killed every day by the Indonesian military.”

The unity of both government and opposition will be tested in the coming weeks. Foreign Minister Carlot and Minister of ni-Vanuatu Business Marcellino Pipite face court proceedings over their presence on the super-yacht Phocea, which docked in Port Vila in mid-2012 without meeting customs requirements (the yacht’s multi-millionaire owner Pascal Anh Quan Saken was nominated by the previous Kilman government as Vanuatu’s honorary consul in Vietnam).

Even Prime Minister Kilman faces questions over debts owed to government for outstanding land rents, which opposition politicians are using to challenge his standing as a member of parliament. With provincial elections scheduled in January for four provinces and potential court rulings that could lead to parliamentary by-elections, politics in Port Vila will continue to be unsettled and the unity of the governing coalition faces on-going challenges.