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Kiribati - Politics

There were no political parties before September 1985, and candidates continued to stand for election as independent individuals, though loosely structured parties – for example, Teburoro Tito’s Maneaban Te Mauri, Teatao Teannaki’s National Progressive Party and Boutokanto Koaava – emerged thereafter.

In May 1994, President Teannaki’s government lost a vote of no-confidence. A general election held in July 1994 brought 18 new members into parliament. The majority of the 39 seats were won by an opposition grouping, which nominated four candidates for election to the presidency. Teburoro Tito was elected president in September 1994.

In March 1998, among the main recommendations of the first review of the constitution since independence in 1979 was that foreign husbands of I-Kiribati women should have the same automatic rights to Kiribati citizenship as foreign wives of I-Kiribati men.

On 23 and 30 September 1998, elections were held for the House of Assembly. In the first round of voting the government won six seats, and the opposition eight seats. In the second round, the government won a further 14 seats (making 20 in all) and the opposition nine seats (17 in all); the remaining two seats were won by independents. Among the successful candidates were former presidents Ieremia Tabai and Teatao Teannaki and former opposition leader Harry Tong.

In November 1998, President Tito was re-elected to the office. He defeated opposition members Amberoti Nikora and Harry Tong.

In the 2002 parliamentary elections, held on 29 November and 6 December, 17 Boutokanto Koaava (BK) candidates were successful while the president’s Maneaban Te Mauri (MTM) won only 16 seats, and seven seats were taken by independents.

Tito then narrowly won the presidential poll in February 2003, defeating his principal rival, Taberannang Timeon, by some 550 votes. Less than a month into his third (and necessarily final) term, he lost a no-confidence vote and fresh elections were called. In the parliamentary elections in May, MTM took 24 of the 40 elected seats and the BK 16, the independents having joined parties. However, in a close contest in July 2003, Anote Tong of the BK defeated the MTM’s candidate, his younger brother Harry Tong, and formed a new government.

Parliamentary elections were held on 22 and 30 August 2007. Independent candidates captured 19 seats of the 44 seats available in the two-round contest. The BK was the leading political party taking 18 seats, with the MTM taking the remaining seven.

In the presidential elections that took place the following October, Anote Tong was victorious by an overwhelming majority receiving more than 15,500 votes (64% of the total vote) with his closest opponent Nabuti Mwemwenikarawa garnering around 8,100 votes (33%).