25 Jan 2016

Another fragmented parliament for Vanuatu

8:40 pm on 25 January 2016

Vanuatu's snap election looks to have returned another fragmented parliament.

But a group of the bigger parties has emerged as the likely front-runner to form a coalition government.

On preliminary results, there are a record ten independent MPs in the 52-seat house, and 17 political parties - although eight of these have just one MP.

Lobbying among MPs over the formation of a coalition government is expected to intensify in coming days ahead of the first sitting of parliament in two weeks time.