Kiribati people delve into concrete issues ahead of elections

Flag of Kiribati.
photo: 123 RF

Soaring living costs and signs that the government is struggling to meet its obligations are major talking points ahead of Kiribati’s first election next Wednesday.

Wednesday’s vote will be followed by a runoff election next Monday, followed by the announcement of presidential nominations and a national referendum expected in September or October.

Rimon Rimon, Kiribati correspondent for RNZ in Kiribati, New Zealand, was interviewed by RNZ Pacific.

(The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.)

Don Wiseman: It’s a very serious situation with only a few days until the election. What is the situation like?

Rimon Rimon: Look, everybody is busy getting things done before the election. One of the problems we have now is that a lot of grassroots people are finding that the government, or a government agency, is very strict about identification requirements. So there is a problem on the eve of voting day, which is called voter registration, and the requirements for whether you can carry a driver’s license, a passport or a national identity card are quite confusing.

Now, the government or the agency responsible for this has said that on voting day, they will strictly check the national ID cards. Now the problem is that some people have lashed out at this and expressed their views on social media, saying that many people do not have national ID cards because the national ID card office is overloaded and cannot meet the needs of people. Therefore, many people do not have ID cards or are renewing their ID cards and are very worried that they may not have the opportunity to vote.

Otherwise, candidates get worked up in the final rounds, posting newspapers and leaflets around town, in front of shops and public places, trying to drum up the last bit of support for their campaigns.

DW: I think the campaign has been going on for several months now, hasn’t it? Has the campaign become more intense?

RR: It has definitely become more intense. I think a lot of people, especially I’ve seen some of the incumbent candidates, the candidates seeking re-election, have really been out and about. I haven’t seen any of that campaigning because it’s usually done in community houses, which are called mwaneaba, which are kind of like traditional New Zealand gathering places. A lot of people have said they’ve seen some of the candidates handing out kava, which is a very popular commodity here, even though the time for handing out items has been stopped by law.

DW: Is there any supervision?

Responsible Party: Well, the Commission should be looking at this, and of course, we have the community as police and people usually report this. We see a lot of this. People are giving away kava, not the candidates, but some people often know that the person giving kava belongs to a certain candidate or is a supporter of that candidate.

Who is monitoring this? I think that’s a good question to look into. I think the Electoral Commission, which is under the Ministry of Culture, is the one that’s really responsible. It’s not just the police patrolling the neighborhoods as if they’re looking for criminal or mischievous activity. I don’t think it’s that way. I think it’s done at the community level, and people who continue to experience this report it to the appropriate authorities. We’ve had this happen in past elections where people reported candidates for giving away more than $20 – you can’t give away $20 under the constitution – we had an incident where a lady was on camera and posted on social media that a candidate gave her over $100.

I think it went to court then. This time around, I heard stories of communities continuing to enjoy drinking and discussing who and what to vote for over a bottle of kava, which was provided by a particular candidate. Now I haven’t really checked this out – whether it actually belonged to a particular candidate, but there was definitely free kava circulating because a lot of people in the community still drank it. Kava has become a commodity that candidates use to get people to sit down and discuss the ideas they want to share.

DW: In terms of your thoughts and mine, last time we talked about the role of the current government in organizing pensions, unemployment benefits and grants or subsidies for copra farmers. Is there any more discussion on these?

Responsible Party: These are the flagship policies that have really defined the party in power over the last four years. And I think the main idea right now, especially what I hear in the capital, is that because the cost of living is not high, the prices of certain items in the shops have gone up to astronomical levels.

So, these are the qualities that people want in a candidate. Another problem is that the standard of healthcare has declined significantly over the past four years. The really essential medicines, like paracetamol or acetaminophen for children, are always in short supply, and when I dug deeper in my local reporting, we found that the government was working very well with overseas suppliers, which made us think that the government was in some kind of cash flow dilemma.

Policies like unemployment and copra subsidies account for a large portion of the subsidies given to the people. I think this has made people feel that we are faced with a lot of overall public services that need to be improved, and some people are now beginning to realize that the existing social benefits may be the cause of the current problems. Now people are trying to choose between these things because they appreciate these social benefits. This is also the reason why they voted for the re-election of this government.

But they also want to improve general well-being, such as public services and health care, because for example, this year alone we have experienced two fuel shortages, which have brought the capital and everything to a standstill. Fishermen cannot go out to sea to fish, cars cannot move. They are waiting in line for fuel shortages, and I learned last year that the state-owned company responsible for oil and gasoline is in charge, and all of these companies cannot pay their outstanding debts, which is why the ships cannot arrive on time or deliver fuel.

These are the questions that people have to wrestle with right now. Because what we’re seeing is that a lot of people believe that politicians are not as honest when they’re running for office and when they’re in office. They’re now thinking very carefully about who and what they’re going to vote for.

DW: Will the campaign end early? Will the campaign continue until Tuesday night?

Responsible Party: Yes, because on Wednesday morning, I think it was seven o’clock, the polls opened, and any last-minute effort was very useful. You might be inclined to vote for a certain candidate, but at the last minute, learning that the candidate did something that really went against your principles or beliefs, it could affect your vote. The campaign really goes down to the wire.