Vanuatu Electoral Commission chairman, Martin Tete has clarified that the election of a new President of Vanuatu has been made under the requirements of the law.
Tete was reacting to concerns from the public that authorities may have been too quick to announce the election of a new President only hours after the state funeral of the late President Baldwin Lonsdale.
According to a Vanuatu Daily Post report, Tete said the death of the President was an unexpected situation as it was the first time a sitting President died while in office and the laws governing the election of the President when the office became vacant gave everyone a very short timeframe to complete the task.
He explained that soon after the plane carrying the body of the late President left Port Vila’s Bauerfield Airport, the Commission and the Electoral Office went into motion because the law required that as soon as practical after the writ was issued the Electoral Commission shall cause a notice to be published in the Gazette and exhibited throughout Vanuatu in such places as it shall be considered appropriate.
A new President of Vanuatu will be elected by an electoral college on July 3.