Vanuatu

Every bare wall, fence, and palm tree in Port Vila has been covered in candidate posters in the build-up to today, but many have said it has been a short, hurried campaign.

The snap election was triggered last month when the president, Baldwin Lonsdale, dissolved parliament to end weeks of political instability following the conviction of 15 MPs for corruption.

The Association says they are aware that police officers approached some of its members to reveal sources regarding a story about the promotion of some senior police officers last year when Aru Maralau was the acting commissioner.

Mr Maralau is currently on suspension.

John Taleo says the reports are being taken seriously and are under investigation.

He says he is also concerned about the number of dead people who have not been removed from electoral rolls, duplicate names, and people registering under false names, which he says opens the field for double voting and electoral fraud.

Arthur Kaluat, the 24-year-old son of Vanuatu’s commissioner of labour ­Lionel Kaluat, was among a group of 22 Vanuatu workers allegedly underpaid by ­Emmanual Bani, the owner of labour-hire firm Maroochy Sunshine.

The Weekly Times last week revealed the Fair Work Ombusdman (FWO) was taking Bani to court, claiming he underpaid 22 Vanuatu workers $77,649 for farm work they performed from July to September 2014.

According to court documents, FWO alleges Arthur Kaluat was underpaid $2230.50 by Bani.

It says it can only delete names of the dead if it has received confirmation from relatives, as on some outer islands there is no official records of people dying at their villages.

The Commission told observers it is doing its best to improve the situation with the introduction of a biometric system by 2020.

The Vanuatu Tourist Rep for New Zealand says the past year has been difficult, with visitor numbers from New Zealand down 20 percent overall for 2014.

But, Tourist Rep, Jacquie Carson, says there's nothing still damaged or closed from Cyclone Pam, and more visitors are heading out to the island of Espiritu Santo.

A voting booth will be made available in Noumea for the election which is to choose a new parliament.

The election was brought forward by the president after almost a third of MPs were jailed for corruption and the remaining MPs failed to overcome the stalemate in the house.

Work has yet to begin on the main Korman site in Port Vila, 10 months after initial delays caused by Cyclone Pam.

The CEO of the 2017 Mini Games, Joe Carlo, says the Chinese government will build the bulk of the facilities but there is still no concrete date yet for when that work will begin.

At around 1pm on Sunday, 17 January 2016, police received a report on the incident which occurred at Malapoa Estate Area, Port Vila.

Police say the cause of the incident is believed to be related to a matrimonial matter.

Daily Post has been informed that the two students have one last trimester left before graduation but have been missing school for the past two weeks due to payment delay by the scholarship office.

A copy of an invoice indicated that their fees were not paid since the 2014-2015 1st Trimester, 2014-2015 2nd Trimester and 2015-2016 1st Trimester.