Dressmaker Jenny Banga is busy trying to put food on the table after the deadly magnitude-7.3 earthquake that struck Vanuatu last month.
While the capital Port Vila's CBD is closed and surveyors assess building damage, her shop is off-limits.
Ahead of national elections today, her mind is on other things than politics, as she tries sewing and selling dresses in a new location outside the city centre.
"I'm focusing on finding a place to earn an income," Ms Banga said.
"I'm not sure yet who I'll vote for."
Nearly a month after the December 17 earthquake struck and killed at least 14 people, voters are heading to the polls with the memories of recent aftershocks fresh in their minds.
Businesses are unable to reopen in the CBD, where it's expected some buildings will need demolition.
Meanwhile, campaigning has been underway around Vanuatu.
Voters across the archipelago today will choose from 217 candidates contesting the parliament's 52 seats.
When the next government forms, it faces a post-earthquake recovery task estimated to cost at least 29 billion vatu ($374 million) — an enormous sum for the developing nation.
It joins an already daunting list of ongoing recovery efforts in Vanuatu, which was still rebuilding from three tropical cyclones in 2023, an airline collapse, and the economic impact of COVID.
And as the nation faces its fourth change of government in nearly two years, observers also say it will need stable leadership if it is to recover from its compounding disasters.
Some voters say the task ahead will influence their choice at the ballot box.
'People are tired'
On Vanuatu's outer islands, candidates have made their case at election rallies marked by dances and singing, and electoral officials have visited by boat to drop off ballot boxes.
In Port Vila, convoys of trucks have carried campaigners around town — although campaigning has been quieter in the city this election.
The snap election is awkwardly timed for a nation reeling from a natural disaster.
About 260 people were injured in the earthquake, 730 homes have been damaged, and as of last week, 780 people remained displaced.
More than 110 classrooms across 45 schools have also been damaged.
Vanuatu human rights advocate Anne Pakoa said the disaster also left many people traumatised.
"That's going to really have a lot of impacts on the election. One is whether people feel safe to travel to the polling stations to vote," she said.
"Second is, would people have the money to catch a bus or taxi to go to polling stations to vote?
"These are some of the things that might hinder the voting process."
It was a fresh round of political instability last November that set Vanuatu's snap election in train, and coincidentally, set the polling date so soon after the December earthquake.
When the opposition tried to oust the government with a motion of no confidence, the president dissolved the parliament on the request of ministers, and the country had a two-month deadline to hold elections under the constitution.
Observers say the public is exhausted with the politicking, having only just backed reforms to stabilise the country's politics in a national referendum last May.
[YouTube link]Ms Pakoa said it could affect turnout in this election.
"The communities that I've spoken to, a lot of people refuse to vote," she said.
"They say, 'I don't want to waste my time, because if I vote they're just going to go to parliament and fight'."
Some election candidates sense a mood for change and are promising a new approach to politics.
Mike Esrom Kaun, who led Vanuatu's "Movement Red" calling for an end to political instability, is running as an independent.
"People are frustrated, are tired and realise that something has to happen and this has been amplified by the disaster that recently happened," he said.
"They're realising that there has to be a change in leadership."
Even before the earthquake, and last year's political turbulence, Vanuatu was grappling with declining voter turnout.
Fewer than half of registered voters cast a ballot in the 2022 snap election.
Some observers have noted another concerning number this election.
Only seven candidates this election are women, including one incumbent MP — a low figure even compared to recent polls, according to ni-Vanuatu scholar and politics expert Anna Naupa.
She said it was possibly a result of the short notice for the snap election, which disadvantaged less established candidates.
'Make Vanuatu Great Again'
Vanuatu is well-versed in responding to natural disasters, including its frequent tropical cyclones.
But government officials and members of the public say the earthquake — which struck the country's most built-up, populated city — is a different kind of crisis.
Vanuatu will have to bring in demolition experts, and it remains unclear how building reconstruction will be funded.
Adjunct associate professor at the Griffith Asia Institute, Tess Newton Cain, said the earthquake will be a main issue for voters in Port Vila and the main island Efate.
"What candidates are able to tell them about recovery is going to be quite important in terms of how they cast their votes," she said.
Ms Pakoa said many homes also needed rebuilding outside Port Vila's CBD, and there was a need for engineers to advise residents on making their dwellings safe from future earthquakes.
Reconstruction in the city is expected to take years, and as the nation braces for the recovery effort, voters say they want leaders who put them first.
"They have to go to the communities to see what the people need, and help the people," voter Elizabeth Tor said.
Another voter, Mark Kalotap, said the country's leaders should find ways to buttress the economy from the shock of natural disasters.
"We've seen a strong earthquake hit us," he said.
"We won't be able to stop cyclones, because Vanuatu is in their pathway. We won't be able to stop floods, they will come. Earthquakes will come.
"But the economy must be strong to make sure that when things like this happen, we can recover quickly."
Some candidates are promising to rebuild Port Vila as the "best capital city in the Pacific", while others are making the economy a centrepiece of their campaigns.
Andrew Wilbur Napuat, a businessman based in Vanuatu's Tanna island, is running for parliament promising to help more ni-Vanuatu people into business and make the country more economically self-sufficient.
The Union of Moderate Parties candidate has adopted the campaign slogan "Make Vanuatu Great Again", saying it's meant as a message of hope that the country can meet its mounting challenges, including the collapse of Air Vanuatu.
"When I tell people let's make Vanuatu great again, I know that they have hope that we can rebuild our country again this election only by choosing good leaders that understand politics," he said.
Ms Naupa said the government, in caretaker mode when the earthquake struck, had so far been constrained in the decisions it could make while responding to the disaster.
The parliament was also yet to approve a national budget before it dissolved last year.
"That's going to be an immediate priority for a new government," Ms Naupa said.
She said the next government should begin by holding itself accountable to a 100-day action plan on earthquake recovery and reconstruction.
Dr Newton Cain said people were looking for strong leadership going into the earthquake recovery — and would vote accordingly.
"People really want to know that the people that they elect … [will] hopefully get Vanuatu onto a track where people feel that they're not just surviving, but they're actually in a position to start thriving."
