Efate rural constituency

The by-election was held Monday and polling officers reported a poor turnout with 7,629 of the 32,607 registered voters voting.

The Electoral Commission officially announced Edwin Kalorisu as the new Member of Parliament for Efate rural and offshore islands constituency with 1,768 votes.

The Reunification Movement of Change candidate Timothy Thomas, finished in second place with 1,411 votes and William Malas of New Nation Party came in 3rd with 1, 215votes.

The win means the Leaders party in the coalition government now has five MPs in the 52-seat House.

Polling officials were trained on polling and counting procedures to ensure smooth operations of voting in Efate on Monday

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Martin Tete named the candidates and their respective political parties in the local media Friday night.

In an official publication, the Electoral Commission said “political campaigns have commenced last Friday the 16th of August and will close, midnight 30th August 2019."

Tete said he would like to remind political parties and individual candidates that precautions must be taken during the campaign period to avoid corrupt and prohibited practices as covered under the parliamentary election laws.