Vanuatu election underway

Transcript

Vanuatu has been holding a snap election to choose a new parliament.

The polls were brought forward by the president to end a deadlock in parliament after almost a third of goverment MPs were jailed for bribery.

Mary Baines spoke to our reporter Jamie Tahana, who is in Port Vila.

JAMIE TAHANA: Polls opened at about 7.30 this morning and in some polling booths I have been to in Port Vila today there were queues leading out the door down the street. But some officers have said turnout has been lower than in 2012 whereas in others it has been higher. With the electoral roll so wrong, there's hundreds more people on the electoral roll than there actually are - dead people on the rolls. So it's really hard to get a percentage of what turnout will be.

MARY BAINES: Have there as yet been any problems encountered with polling?

JT: Nothing widespread. As I mentioned with electoral rolls, some people have turned up to find out they are not on the list. And some have turned up to find they are on the list twice. It is largely isolated cases. There has been reports from Santo and another outer island of ballots not turning up. And so there have been a few minor problems reported, but again we will probably know once the observers and the Electoral Commission find out and that should be later tonight.

MB: So why was this snap election called?

JT: The snap election was called last month by president Baldwin Londsdale when he dissolved parliament suddenly. That was to end about three weeks of political stalemate that came when 15 of those government MPs were jailed for corruption charges and they couldn't form a government so an election was called. One of those jailed MPs, Moana Carcasses, former PM, I saw him voting this morning - they're allowed to do that from prison in Vanuatu. So that's what triggered the snap election today. But there has been only a month for campaigning which means it has been a very hurried affair.

MB: And I understand the government will have to be a coalition.

JT: Yes. So to form, to have a majority of government, there's 52 seats, you need 27 MPs to form a government. And no party contesting here has put forward 27 MPs so no one will be able to claim an outright majority to govern alone. So from tonight or once we get some preliminary results, there will be the coalition talks underway and the wrangling will go on some predict for as long as two weeks as they try to form a coalition here. And of course there are 15 seats without an incumbent so there will be a largely fresh parliament. So what that government will look like no one has really been willing to guess.