30 Jun 2017

Last minute rush of applicants for Vanuatu presidency

2:19 pm on 30 June 2017

Vanuatu's electoral office will vet the names of 35 candidates - including two women - for the country's presidency.

Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale speaks during an interview with Agence France-Presse in his hotel room minutes before his departure to return home after attending the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai on March 16, 2015.

Baldwin Lonsdale Photo: AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura

The former president, Baldwin Lonsdale, died earlier this month of a heart attack.

Applications closed last night, and the Daily Post reported that there was a last minute rush of applicants.

Meanwhile, a new political bloc, called U-Bloc, said it would support any political party that fields a female candidate as Head of State.

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