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Port Vila, June 13, 2024 (AFP) – The Pacific nation of Vanuatu has voted to amend its constitution to end years of political instability, the results of its first national referendum released on Wednesday showed.
Since Vanuatu replaced three prime ministers within a month last October, calls from the public for constitutional amendments have been growing louder.
Vanuatu’s 52 parliamentary seats are currently dominated by independents and small parties who form shifting coalitions that rarely last a full term.
Over the years, a series of governments have been toppled by the sudden fall of once-loyal Coalition MPs.
Constitutional reforms that are supported by voters would make it more difficult for lawmakers to switch sides or abandon their allegiances during their parliamentary term.
The Vanuatu Electoral Commission has announced that an amendment requiring politicians to belong to a political party during their four-year term has passed with 59% support.
The committee added that a second reform, which effectively prevents MPs from standing as independents, passed with 57 per cent support.
Vanuatu has a population of approximately 300,000.
More than 90,000 people participated in the referendum.
Referendum supporters argue that the ongoing threat of government instability distracts from the threats of natural disasters, economic recession and climate change.
But critics worry the changes could make it harder for MPs to voice dissent from the opposition party line.
Jon Fraenkel, a Pacific observer at Victoria University in New Zealand, is not sure the changes are wise.
He said it would be extremely difficult to implement a strict party system in a country that had long shunned it.
“This kind of thing just creates more potential crisis points,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Between 1991 and 2017, Vanuatu changed its prime minister 20 times.
By the end of 2023, political unrest had reached crisis levels, with three prime ministers rotating in within 32 days.
Vanuatu’s constitution came into force in 1980, shortly after the former British and French colony, once known as the New Hebrides, declared independence… PACNEWS
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