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Tallis Obed Moses has been sworn in as the new President of Vanuatu at a brief ceremony in the country's capital Port Vila.
One of 16 candidates that included former prime ministers an public servants, Mr Moses won the ballot as the ninth head of state after four rounds of voting.
Mr Moses, 63, is a long-serving pastor and former leader of the Presbyterian Church in Vanuatu.
He replaces former president Baldwin Lonsdale, who died suddenly of a heart attack several weeks ago while serving in office.
Although the Vanuatu presidency is often seen as a ceremonial position, Lonsdale was widely revered in the Pacific nation, in part due to his handling of a corruption scandal that shook the country in 2015.
Dan McGarry, the media director of the Vanuatu Daily Post who was at Parliament this morning, said Mr Moses' reputation as a man of "impeccable moral character" was a decisive factor played a significant role in his being elected to succeed Lonsdale.
Mr Moses had received religious training and education in Australia and Papua New Guinea before serving as head of Vanuatu's Presbyterian Church.
Topics: elections, world-politics, vanuatu, pacific