Leye (or Leye Lenelgau Manatawai), Jean-Marie (1933– )

Vanuatuan Francophone politician, president 1994–99. In November 1997, after two years of political instability and deadlock, he intervened controversially to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.

Born on Aneityum Island, he was educated at French-speaking schools and had a successful career in the private sector, becoming a director of Air Vanuatu. In 1957 he was elected president of his island's local council and helped draft the new constitution that provided for the New Hebrides' independence, in 1980, as the Republic of Vanuatu. In 1983 Leye was elected to the Vanuatu parliament, as vice-president of the Francophone Union of Moderate Parties (UMP), which remained in opposition to the Anglophone Vanuaaku Pati (VP) until 1991.