Vanuatu MP and former finance minister Willie Jimmy is calling for witchcraft to be made a crime punishable by death.
The comment follows an incident last week on an island near Malekula in which a community, allegedly including chiefs and church pastors, hanged two men for suspected sorcery.
Police are treating the men's deaths as homicide.
Mr Jimmy said having the law framed this way puts those who "innocently" kill accused witches at risk of punishment.
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"Even to the extreme that there could be some death penalty, some capital punishment against those who practice [witchcraft], I will not hesitate having agreed to that type of law passed by parliament."
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"As an indigenous Melanesian person, I do believe very strongly that witchcraft does exist among the Melanesian people, they do practice this witchcraft," he said.
"We try to combat those who practice it but the problem is the law does not recognise that, because civil and criminal procedures require we have proof or evidence beyond all reasonable doubt before we can punish anybody, that makes it very, very difficult.
"It does take place in Melanesia, it does. If you think it does not then the people, those who practice that, they will be happy ... that we don't see the problems they are causing the community, that they will stay free all the time."
Vanuatu MP Willie Jimmy proposes death penalty for witchcraft - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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