SYDNEY, Jan 16, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Voters in Pacific nation Vanuatu cast ballots Thursday in a snap general election, a contest widely dismissed as a "distraction" while citizens rebuild from last month's deadly tremor. 

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake rumbled through Vanuatu on December 17, rupturing roads, toppling buildings in capital Port Vila and killing at least 14 people. 

Port Vila local Flora Vano, who works for an aid agency providing earthquake relief, said it was "too soon" to hold an election.

"People are not focused on the election or campaign, they are solely focused on what they will see tomorrow," she told AFP.

Hard-pressed families in the developing nation were more concerned with buying gas and repairing community food gardens wiped out in the disaster, said Vano, who works for ActionAid Vanuatu. 

Vanuatu's parliament was dissolved in November before disgruntled MPs could launch a "no confidence" motion designed to topple Prime Minister Charlot Salwai. 

The motion reportedly cited a grab bag of grievances including the flagging fortunes of national carrier Air Vanuatu, a teachers' strike and financial transparency questions.

Such political instability has become all too familiar in the former British and French colony, which changed prime minister 20 times in a 26-year period starting in 1991.

The tumult reached crisis levels at the end of 2023, when Vanuatu churned through three premiers in the space of a month. 

"Instability will not help Vanuatu right now, especially after the earthquake. The whole nation has been affected by the earthquake," Port Vila candidate Mike Esrom Kaun told AFP.

Many in Vanuatu had grown "frustrated" with the current crop of lawmakers and the country's near-constant democratic wobbles, Kaun said.

With ballot boxes dispatched to dozens of outer islands across the volcanic archipelago, it was not clear when final results would be available.

Polls close at 4:30 pm (0530 GMT), but it could take days for an official result to filter through and for a government to be formed.

Vanuatu's 52-member parliament is typically dominated by independents and micro-parties which form unwieldy governing alliances. 

Salwai was joined by former prime ministers Ishmael Kalsakau and Bob Loughman among the 217 candidates running for office.

- Election 'distraction' -

There are concerns the constant threat of instability has shifted attention away from natural disasters, the country's faltering economy and climate change.

Pacific analyst Riley Duke said Vanuatu's political squabbling had derailed progress in crucial areas like health and education. 

"The election really is another distraction from development priorities," said Duke, from Australia's Lowy Institute think tank. 

"Vanuatu is a developing country with huge challenges. Its key indicators -- income, health outcomes and education performance -- have been declining in recent years," he told AFP. 

Vanuatu, which has a population of about 330,000, is also highly vulnerable to natural disasters such as tropical cyclones, flooding and earthquakes, according to the World Risk Report. 

Like many of its South Pacific neighbours, Vanuatu has been trying to balance ties with traditional security partners in the West and an increasingly generous China. 

State-backed Chinese companies have carried out a slew of infrastructure projects across Vanuatu, and Beijing last year picked up the tab for a new presidential palace. 

About 40 percent of Vanuatu's external debt is owed to Chinese banks, according to the Lowy Institute.

Before gaining independence in 1980, Vanuatu was a colony carved up between the British and French and known as the New Hebrides.