Residents line up to vote amid political instability and buildings and infrastructure shattered by last month’s earthquake

A month after the December 17 earthquake struck and killed 14 people, voters are heading to the polls with the memories of recent aftershocks fresh in their minds.

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.

Voters are heading to the polls for the snap election of Vanuatu, despite the turbulence of a severe earthquake one month ago, reported Xinhua. Thursday has been declared a public holiday in the Pacific nation when roughly 315,

Vanuatu’s self-sabotaging political class has left the country struggling to deal with social and economic shocks of recent natural disasters.

Vanuatu held a snap general election on Thursday after Prime Minister Charlot Salwai’s decision to go to the polls two years early rather than risk a no-confidence vote in his divided coalition government.

Voting began on Thursday to elect a new government in Vanuatu, a month after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific island nation’s capital Port Vila, killing at least 16 people, triggering landslides and damaging several major buildings.

Vanuatu is set for its fifth prime minister in just over two years, as voting gets underway in the Pacific nation's snap election on Thursday.