Political Reviews The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 2016 nic maclellan Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 2016 alumita l durutalo, budi hernawan, gordon leua nanau, howard van trease The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 29, Number 2, 321–373 © 2017 by University of Hawai‘i Press 321 political reviews • melanesia 361 -wharf-concerns-residents [accessed 10 Tarte, 21–24. Suva: University of the South April 2017] Pacific; Canberra: Australian National University. ———. 2016b. Flood Victims Get Relief Supplies. Solomon Star, 9 Dec. unocha, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Sanga, Lesley. 2017. Plight of Islanders: 2017. Country Profiles: Solomon Islands. Sea Level Rise Takes Its Terrible Toll on http://www.unocha.org/pacific/country Fanalei Villagers. Sunday Star, 8 Jan. -profiles/solomon-islands [accessed sibc, Solomon Islands Broadcasting 10 April 2017] Corporation. 2016. wvsi+kits fo South Mala. 20 Dec. http://www.sibconline.com .sb/wvsikits-fo-south-mala/ [accessed 10 April 2017] Vanuatu sprep, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Following one of the most tumultuous Environmental Programme. 2016. Pacific years in Vanuatu’s history with the Islands Help Bring Paris Agreement into trial, conviction, and imprisonment of Force. 5 Nov. http://www.sprep.org/ fourteen members of Parliament ( s) climate-change/pacific-islands-help-bring mp -paris-agreement-into-force [accessed on charges of bribery and corruption, 10 April 2017] there was some hope at the beginning of 2016 that things could only get SS, Solomon Star. 2016a. Churches Given better, though remnants of past events Drinking Water. Dec. 30 still remained to be dealt with. Unfor- ———. 2016b. Crucial Emergency Com- tunately, the country faced serious munication System to ndmo. 15 Dec. economic problems stemming from http://www.solomonstarnews.com/news/ the destruction brought in March national/11945-crucial-emergency 2015 by Cyclone Pam—a category five -communication-system-to-ndmo storm that ravaged the archipelago’s [accessed 8 April 2017] eastern and southern islands as well ———. 2016c. Heavy Rain Threatens as the nation’s capital of Port Vila. Tailings Facility. 7 April. http://www The surprise dissolution of Parliament .solomonstarnews.com/news/national/ in November 2015, which triggered 10086-heavy-rain-threatens-tailings a snap election, was not welcomed -facility [accessed 10 April 2017] initially but did have the effect of ———. 2016d. World Vision Joins Govt finally removing the discredited care- Relief Efforts. 12 Dec. taker government of Sato Kilman and sto, Solomon Times Online. 2016. allowing for a fresh start with a host Tropical Low Moves across Solomon of new politicians (Van Trease 2016, Islands. 29 Nov. http://www.solomontimes 484–487). .com/news/tropical-low-moves-across Despite the short time between -solomon-islands/8663 [accessed 8 April when the election was announced 2017] (21 November 2015) and the actual Tong, Anote. 2016. “Charting Its Own voting day (22 January 2016), the Course”: A Paradigm Shift in Pacific electoral process itself proceeded in Diplomacy. In The New Pacific Diplo- the normal way with few problems, macy, edited by Greg Fry and Sandra though the voter turnout was low—a 362 the contemporary pacific • 29:2 (2017) mere 57 percent of registered voters votes cast. The results were divided as compared to 70.4 percent in 2008 follows: 58.7 percent for the top ten and 63.2 percent in 2012. Likewise, parties, 22.8 percent for the remaining several political parties faced difficul- twenty-seven smaller parties, and 18.5 ties in organizing their campaigns, due percent for the sixty-two independents in part to the fact that their leaders (Republic of Vanuatu 2016; Early had been imprisoned. Indeed, fifteen 2016). members of the last Parliament were The root of the problem lies in the banned from contesting the election— fact that Vanuatu’s political culture the fourteen who had been convicted has undergone a significant change plus Willy Jimmy, who pleaded guilty since the early days of independence, and received a suspended sentence. when politics was dominated by only Under section 42 of Vanuatu’s Lead- two main parties—the Vanua‘aku ership Code, when a leader is con- Pati (vp) and the Union of Moderate victed of a breach of the code and is Parties (ump)—with the vp wining dismissed from office, “the leader is a majority of the seats in 1979 (the disqualified from standing for election election just before independence) as, or being appointed as, a leader of and again in 1983 and 1987. Vanuatu any kind for a period of 10 years from uses the Single Non-Transferable Vote the date of the conviction” (Leader- (sntv) system for its nine multi-seat ship Code Act 2006). The selection of constituencies and First Past the candidates was made more difficult Post (fptp) for the remaining eight in some cases when it was rumored single-seat constituencies. The sntv that several imprisoned individuals was adopted to provide a degree of attempted to influence decisions from proportionality, as required under the their cells. constitution, and worked well dur- As a result of the confusion, ing the 1980s. In 1991, however, the fewer candidates contested the elec- vp split, with the result that no single tion—270, representing a total of party obtained a majority, therefore thirty-seven parties plus sixty-two requiring the formation of a coalition independents—compared to 349 government—the pattern that has candidates in 2008 and 345 in 2012. existed since that time (Van Trease Nevertheless, the number was still 2005). large enough to have an impact and to The bribery case and imprison- split the vote, as has been the pattern ment of elected mps was obviously a since the 1990s, to the extent that no prominent issue during the campaign, single party was able to gain a major- but it is clear that it did not have an ity in the fifty-two-seat Parliament. overwhelming impact on the results. The result, once again, was the need There was not a major swing against to form a coalition government. It the parties that constituted the Kilman should be noted that the majority of government as might have been the parties were newly created (ie, expected, given the number of mem- they did not contest earlier elections), bers who had been found guilty and fielded very few candidates, and only imprisoned. The fact was, however, received a small percentage of the total that all the former Kilman government political reviews • melanesia 363 parties were represented in the elec- remaining at 4, rmc remaining at 3, tion and with few exceptions suc- and mpp down from 2 to 1. ceeded in getting members elected—in A better description of the elec- most cases achieving a level of success tion results was that, as usual, they similar to what they had enjoyed in reflected “localised and clientelistic the 2012 election or slightly better. policy platforms, widespread patron- Compared to 2012, the results were age, political fragmentation, and a as follows: the Green Coalition (gc) proliferation of small parties” (Naupa down from 3 to 2, the Iauko Group 2016). Moreover, they indicate that up from 3 to 4, the ump up from 5 to the old Anglophone/Francophone 6, the People’s Progressive Party (ppp) divide still played a part in the elec- down from 6 to 1, and the Vanuatu tion. Indeed, it was not uncommon Republican Party and the Natatok to hear former Kilman government Indigenous People’s Democratic candidates claim that the conviction Party both losing their single seats in of the former government mps was 2016. The poor showing of ppp, the politically motivated, pointing to the party of Prime Minister Sato Kilman, fact that corruption was not new to reflects his weak performance during Vanuatu politics, but that few corrupt the crisis in the last months of 2015, politicians had been indicted in the which probably undermined the party past. The fact that the majority of nationally, though he received the the convicted members were them- highest total vote among the seven selves Francophones and members of candidates on his home island of traditionally Francophone parties (eg, Malakula. the ump, the gc, the Vanuatu Repub- However, the parties that had lican Party, and several from the rmc, constituted the Opposition under which had split) fed the perception of former Prime Minister Joe Natuman some that the old Anglophone/Fran- prior to the January 2016 election— cophone rivalry was still a divisive the vp, National United Party (nup), factor in Vanuatu politics. This is not Graon mo Jastis Pati (gjp), Ras- to say that Francophones are more semblement Des Mouvements Pour Le prone to corruption than Anglophones Changement (rmc), and Melanesian but rather that the former Opposi- Progressive Party (mpp)—were quick tion pressed their case against those to point out that their accusations mps suspected of bribery, and their of corruption and moves against common party affiliations led to this members of the Kilman government perception. had been vindicated and they would In early January, as the campaign have used this fact to promote them- got underway, party leaders who had selves. Nevertheless, the results do not worked together in the Opposition indicate that this argument had much met on Pele Island to negotiate an effect on voter opinion. Compared to agreement to form the next govern- the 2012 election, the results in 2016 ment. They established what they for the major parties that made up the called the Unity Front for Change Opposition were mixed: the vp down (ufc), which included the vp, nup, from 8 to 6, gjp up from 4 to 6, nup gjp, mpp, and Hope Party (VDP, 5 Jan 364 the contemporary pacific • 29:2 (2017) 2017).