Vanuatu
Vanuatu exhibits mid-range performance across all categories of the Global State of Democracy framework. It is amongst the world's top 25 per cent with regard to several factors, but it is amongst the bottom 25 per cent in terms of Gender Equality. Over the last five years, Vanuatu has experienced notable advances in Access to Justice and Freedom of Expression, but it has suffered declines in Effective Parliament. Vanuatu is a lower-middle-income country, with an economy based primarily on small-scale agriculture, alongside some fishing, offshore financial services, and tourism. The country’s placement in the Human Development Index (HDI) is the third-lowest among Pacific island nations.
Formerly called the New Hebrides, Vanuatu was a jointly administered British and French territory prior to achieving independence in 1980. Since then, this multiparty parliamentary system has suffered from unstable coalitions and political tumult, often attributed to Vanuatu’s socio-cultural fragmentation and weak parties. The Ni-Vanuatu comprise the overwhelming majority of the population, but the English-French linguistic divide, regional differences, ideology, and personalism have contributed to partisan troubles. Corruption and clientelism remain major issues that threaten the country’s ability to respond to crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic and frequent natural disasters. Environmental issues loom large, as Vanuatu is one of the countries most affected by climate change and rising sea levels.
Vanuatuan women continue to face significant discrimination, and many live under the specter of domestic violence; however, progress is being made on this front, as new legislation seeks to combat gender-based violence. Additional concerns include a significant underrepresentation of women in politics and a lack of access to modern contraceptives. With these issues largely excluded from the public sphere, the country’s politics have been dominated largely by economic and development issues. Infrastructure, as well as schools and basic services, have all been hampered by limited resources and insufficient investment. Inequality and an uneven distribution of these resources have long been identified as key issues, including by the Government of Vanuatu. Given the dispossession of land under colonial rule, land ownership remains a political issue and repeated legislative interventions have been necessary over the years to protect land rights.
One controversial approach to growing the country’s economy has been the Vanuatu Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, which highlights the low tax rates available to investors. Even more hotly debated is the practice of selling citizenships and passports. While the sale of citizenships has kept the economy afloat during the pandemic, some Ni-Vanuatu fear that the policy risks undercutting the value of the national passport and harming relations with other countries as a result of the fact that many unscrupulous figures take advantage of the policy.
Looking ahead, it will be important to watch how government coalitions impact Effective Parliament. Recent moves by the judiciary to crack down on graft could impact Absence of Corruption and Judicial Independence. It will also be important to see how planned investments in infrastructure affect Basic Welfare. Vanuatu’s future depends in large part on the world’s response to climate change, and it is leading international diplomatic efforts to obtain a judgement from the International Court of Justice on national obligations to combat it.
Monthly Event Reports
December 2023 | New political parties law to reduce instability
Vanuatu’s parliament passed the Political Parties Registration Act on 12 December with 42 votes in the 52-seat chamber. Members of parliament in government and the opposition hailed the passage as a major step forward in ending years of political instability, rooted in part in the lack of restrictions on party-switching or rules against forming short-lived parties without clear platforms. Parties will now have to be formally registered and meet the same financial reporting requirements as other legal institutions, like private entities and NGOs, with compliance subject to regulation by the Election Commission. Political party registration has been on the political agenda since 2015, and the bill’s passage was in part propelled by public dissatisfaction with the heightened level of political instability that has produced three prime ministers since 4 September.
October 2023 | Political chaos continues with third PM in one month
Charlot Salwai was elected prime minister of Vanuatu on 6 October, making him the third prime minister in the last month. Salwai was the sole candidate before parliament following a show of hands no-confidence vote in which his predecessor Sato Kilman was ousted. Kilman had done the same to his predecessor Ishmael Kalsakau in a similar procedure on 4 September. The current government holds only a slim majority over the opposition, and defections and the removal of MPs for procedural reasons have played a role in the repeated removal of prime ministers over minor policy disagreements
September 2023 | Kalsakau out, Kilman in as PM
Vanuatu’s parliament elected Sato Kilman as prime minister for the fifth time on 4 September, replacing Alatoi Kalsaku, whose final judicial appeal against a 25 August no-confidence vote was dismissed earlier in the day. The trigger for the vote was Kalsakau’s signing of a defense pact with Australia, which opposition MPs said jeopardized the country’s neutrality. Kilman, who is Vanuatu’s fourth head of state in five years, has vowed to “revisit” the agreement.
November 2022 | New prime minister elected
Ishmael Kalsakau was elected the 13th Prime Minister of Vanuatu by the country’s parliament on 4 November, following the country’s 13 October general election. Kalsakau was previously the deputy prime minister, and was elected with 50 votes in the 52-seat parliament. The government’s priorities include raising the minimum wage and addressing unemployment, as well as furthering the long-time goal of ensuring customary land ownership.
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GSoD Indices Data 2013-2022
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