Vanuatu's parliament elected Joe Natuman as new prime minister today after the Pacific archipelago's Tahitian-born incumbent Moana Carcasses Kalosil was toppled in a no-confidence vote.
Kalosil had been in the job since March last year and survived three previous attempts to remove him from office, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said.
Hilaire Bule, a journalist on the Vanuatu Independent, said Natuman won 40 out of the 52 votes cast by parliamentarians.
"Joe Natuman is now our new prime minister. He is selecting his ministers," he told AFP of a man who has served in various governments and held a variety of ministerial positions, including foreign affairs and justice.
When appointed, Kalosil was the first non-Vanuatu-born leader of the country which gained independence in 1980 after previously being jointly administered by Britain and France.
But a decision to pick little-known Singaporean company, Vanuatu Trade Development, to build and run an expensive new international airport caused friction.
