He is a lawyer from the national capital, Port Vila, and is the first Head of State of Vanuatu to have a university degree.

Mataskelekele had previously served as Vanuatu's first indigenous Solicitor General and a former Supreme Court justice.

[2] He was elected by the electoral college, which consists of the Parliament and regional Presidents, on 16 August 2004, and sworn in the same day.

He had previously been a candidate in the presidential election of April 2004, and was backed by the government of Edward Natapei.

Though Kalkot was widely expected to win, there were many other candidates, and he faced tough opposition from Willie David Saul and former Prime Minister Donald Kalpokas.