8. Meltek Sato Kilman Livtuvanu
Meltek Sato Kilman Livtuvanu is a Vanuatu politician. He had been Prime Minister of Vanuatu from June 2015 to February 2016.
Kilman was previously Prime Minister from December 2010 to April 2011 and from May to June 2011, though his premiership was subsequently annulled by a court of law.
He was elected Prime Minister again on 26 June 2011, thus beginning his first legally recognised term in the premiership; he served until 23 March 2013. He is also the current Leader of the People’s Progress Party. He is an MP from Lakatoro on Malekula Island
7. Kalkot Mataskelekele Mauliliu
Kalkot Mataskelekele Mauliliu (born 24 April 1949) was President of Vanuatu from 16 August 2004 to 16 August 2009.
He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne the University of Papua New Guinea. He is a lawyer from the national capital, Port Vila, and is the first Head of State of Vanuatu to have a university degree. Mataskelekele had previously served as Vanuatu’s first indigenous Solicitor General and a former Supreme Court justice.
He was elected by the electoral college, which consists of the Parliament and regional Presidents, on 16 August 2004, and sworn in the same day.
He had previously been a candidate in the presidential election of April 2004, and was backed by the government of Edward Natapei. However, after several inconclusive rounds in the electoral college, he was defeated by Alfred Maseng. After the impeachment of Maseng and a parliamentary election, a new election was held on 12 August 2004, which was inconclusive and was continued on 16 August.
6. Tallis Obed Moses
Tallis Obed Moses (born 24 October 1954) is a ni-Vanuatu pastor who has been President of Vanuatu since 6 July 2017.
Moses also served as a pastor at Erromango, Ranon in North Ambrym, Luganville and Bamefau. A long-serving pastor and a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu (elected in 2009 and again in 2013) after received religious training and education in Australia and Papua New Guinea when he was chosen among 16 candidates after four rounds of voting (received 40 votes out of 57 from the Electoral College) to succeed Baldwin Lonsdale, who had died in office
5. Ham Lini Vanuaroroa
Ham Lini Vanuaroroa is a politician from Vanuatu. He is an MP from Pentecost Island in Penama Province. He was Prime Minister of Vanuatu from 11 December 2004 until 22 September 2008, and is the current Deputy Prime Minister since 16 May 2014.
Lini is the brother of Walter Lini, one of the founders of the modern Republic of Vanuatu. Ham Lini is the current leader of the National United Party (VNUP).
4. Marcellino Pipite
Marcellino Pipite is a Vanuatuan politician and former school administration, who was first elected to Parliament in 2004. He was the foreign minister of Vanuatu from November 2004 until December 2004, in the government of Serge Vohor. He was previously the minister for comprehensive reform. He lost his position in the cabinet in December 2004 when the Vohor government fell.
He was elected as the Speaker of the Parliament of Vanuatu on 16 June 2015, and served until October 2015.
On October 10, 2015, while serving as acting President, he pardoned himself and 13 other MPs who the Supreme Court had found guilty of bribery. President Baldwin Lonsdale, returning to Vanuatu hours after Pipite’s pardon has been issued, declared that nobody is above the law and revoked the pardon, a decision upheld by the Vanuatu Supreme Court.
Pipite and 10 of the other MPs faced charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Sentencing on the bribery charges went ahead and Pipite was jailed for 3 years, together with most of the other convicted MPs.
3. Rialuth Serge Vohor
Rialuth Serge Vohor (born 24 April 1955) is a politician from Vanuatu. He hails from the largest island of Vanuatu, Espiritu Santo, from Port Olry.
He is a member of the Union of Moderate Parties, a conservative, moderate political party. When his party came to power in 1991, Vohor became foreign minister of Vanuatu for the first of three times, until 1993.
Vohor has been Prime Minister four times, from December 1995 to February 1996; from September 1996 to March 1998; from 28 July 2004, to 11 December 2004; and from 24 April 2011 to 13 May 2011. The latter, brief term was however voided by the Court of Appeal, deeming his election unconstitutional as he had been elected only by a majority of Members of Parliament (26 out of 52), not by an absolute majority.
In October 2015, Vohor was one of 15 MPs to be convicted of bribery by the Vanuatu Supreme Court and was jailed for 3 years. Vohor was Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Kilman government at the time of his conviction.
2. Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas
Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas is a ni-Vanuatu politician and former accountant and political advisor. He is the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, having been elected on 11 February 2016. He is the leader of the Reunification of Movements for Change (RMC), which is part of the Unity for Change bloc. Salwai is a Francophone from Pentecost Island.
Salwai had previously served as Minister for Trade and Industries, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Minister for Education, Minister for Finance and Economic Management, and Minister of Internal Affairs. He has also served as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Leader of the Opposition Whip, and Deputy Opposition Leader.
In August 2016 he was re-elected as leader of the RMC. In late November 2016 Salwai survived an attempt at a motion of no-confidence, with MP’s being divided on procedural points regarding the motion and attachment of a summons.
1. Gilbert Đinh Văn Thân
Gilbert Đinh Văn Thân, more commonly known as Đinh Văn Thân, is a ni-Vanuatu “prominent businessman” and former politician. Ron Crocombe described him in 2007 as “perhaps the wealthiest entrepreneur and largest private employer in Vanuatu and many say the most politically influential citizen”.
Thân is a naturalised citizen of Vanuatu. The Vanuatu Daily Post describes him as “a ni-Vanuatu of Vietnamese parentage”. His father began his work in Vanuatu as an “indentured labourer”.