17 Facts About Iolu Abil

Iolu Johnson Abil was born on 17 February 1942 and is a Vanuatuan politician.

Iolu Abil was elected and sworn in as the president of Vanuatu on 2 September 2009.

Iolu Abil was born in the village of Louaneai on Tanna in the New Hebrides in 1942 to parents George Yaviniau and Nassuaiu.

Iolu Abil's hereditary title was granted to him by his grandfather, Joe Yautim, who was a Yaramara, or chief, on Tanna.

Iolu Abil next enrolled at Lenakel Senior Primary School, which he attended from 1956 until 1958.

Iolu Abil is an elder in the Presbyterian Church in Vanuatu.

Iolu Abil took a job with the New Hebrides Cooperative Department in 1964, a position he held for the next sixteen years.

Iolu Abil enrolled in cooperative development training courses in Papua New Guinea and Fiji during the 1960s.

Iolu Abil then became a student at the Loughborough International Co-operative College in the United Kingdom for two years.

Iolu Abil served in the Cabinet member in the first post-independence government of Prime Minister Walter Lini, thereby becoming Vanuatu's first Secretary of the Ministry of Lands.

Mr Iolu Abil Abbil moved to politics in the late 1990s to later become the Member of Parliament for Tanna.

Iolu Abil Abbil was appointed as the interim Ombudsman of Vanuatu in November 2004, following the departure of Hannington Alatoa, whose term in office had expired in June 2004.

Iolu Abil served as interim Ombudsman until April 2005 when Peter Taurakoto was appointed to a five-year term by President Kalkot Mataskelekele.

Iolu Abil was elected president by Vanuatu's 58-member electoral college on 2 September 2009.

Iolu Abil was elected on the electoral college's third round of voting in two days.

Iolu Abil defeated six other candidates who had been nominated for president in the electoral college's third round.

Iolu Abil was sworn in as President of Vanuatu on the evening of 2 September 2009.