Surprising no one, Vanuatu’s Electoral College failed to achieve the required supermajority in yesterday’s meeting to elect a new President. Perhaps the only interesting result was that Chief Vincent Boulekone received the most votes (albeit well short of anything approaching the magic number). Chief Boulekone, one of the drafters of Vanuatu’s Constitution, has been actively engaged in public life since Independence.

It’s entirely possible, of course, that members of the Electoral College have simply been ‘parking’ their votes with him (an eminently safe choice – he’s well regarded by all, francophone and from Pentecost) until such time as they can organise support for their intended candidate. Sort of like showing a jack in order to hide your ace.

No doubt, the horse-trading is well under way by now. I doubt there are more than four or five individuals in the entire country who understand the complex, downright byzantine mechanics of Vanuatu politics well enough to comfortably predict how this will play out. The rest of us will just have to wait and see….