‘An open game’: Next in Kiribati elections is the election of the speaker

Maneaba ni Maungatabu (Parliament of Kiribati)
photo: Facebook / Maneaba ni Maungatabu

All members of parliament in Kiribati have been elected and the focus now is on the first meeting of Parliament and the election of the Speaker.

The 44 members include Five women for the first timefour of whom are among the 17 new members of Maneaba ni Maungatabu.

RNZ Pacific Radio’s Kiribati correspondent Rimon Rimon discusses the next phase of the political process.

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

Don Wiseman: Well, Rimon, we’re halfway through the election process. We have an interesting new parliament. A lot of independents, including many in the last parliament, have lost their seats.

Rimon Rimon: I think that’s what’s unique about democracy in Kiribati, especially in the transition period and the election process. To be clear, there are two cycles. The first cycle is the general election, which gets people into parliament, so that’s a check-the-box thing. Now, the elected have to sort themselves out and not only form a party, but also identify the best candidate to put forward in the presidential election.

That brings us to the second cycle. The second cycle happens around October. In October, the people will go to the polls again to elect the president. Now, during this period, we will have a session on September 13th. Basically, now all the elected members of parliament go to the capital where they need to first be sworn in by the Chief Justice. After being sworn in, the next item on the agenda is the election of the Speaker. In the past, elections were conducted by secret ballot. This time, that has changed. The election will be conducted in an open ballot, which means that all the candidates or all the members of parliament who have just been sworn in will know which Speaker they will vote for. Once the Speaker is elected and takes office, the political parties will be invited to present their candidates.

DW: Well, Rimon, I just want to ask a couple of questions. First, is there a chief justice?

Responsible Party: One of them was sworn in before the president earlier this year.

DW: It was a temporary appointment, wasn’t it?

Responsible Party: As far as we understand, that was a temporary measure. So, I think the President made it official some time later, she was sworn in and is now the (permanent) Chief Justice. So the Chief Justice will hear all these matters, no matter what has happened in the judiciary in the last three or four years. At least now we can say that the High Court or the Kiribati judiciary has a Chief Justice. Her appointment controversy and all the controversies are now set aside, at least that’s what the government wants.

DW: Another question is, will all these MPs go to Tarawa? Because the airlines are basically grounded, right?

Responsible Party: Well, Air Kiribati is not a new problem. I mean, for the last four years, and even four years before that, people have been clamoring for improvement, and it’s challenging because of the old fleet. Air Kiribati announced yesterday (Tuesday) that they are seeking public understanding because their priority right now is to get the MPs to the capital. That caused quite a bit of discussion among the public because there’s a lot of delayed travel and freight that needs to get where they need to go. But now they’re being told that in the interest of the democratic process, they’re seeking public understanding to allow the airline to focus only on getting these MPs to the capital.

DW: So the Speaker – is the Speaker always a member of the House?

Responsible Party: He or she can be a speaker, but usually isn’t. Basically, in the past, this person wouldn’t usually be elected from either party and then market that, so you have to lobby both parties to nominate you for speaker. At the moment, we have a few ideas, but we don’t know who they are. They’re all up in the air right now.

DW: Taneti Maamau is about to start his third term, the maximum allowed by the Kiribati constitution. There seems to be a sense that he might be re-elected, but it all depends on what kind of support he can get from these new people, doesn’t it?

Responsible Party: That is true, but what I want to emphasize to the international media is that it is very important that they sort out the parties and the numbers now because they don’t really understand the process. It is important, but it is not useful at this stage because the situation is still uncertain. Everything will come back to the people and the people will decide. So even if Taneti Mamawu’s party is in the majority now, it will be useful and give him an easy win. But the experience of other governments in the past is that they won as a minority government, so over time they started to let other people in, and then that’s what happened.

I should say that it’s really an open race now. We can’t really say for sure. Of course, the cards may be in his favor, but, we can’t prejudge what the people want. Basically, the dynamics of a general election are very different to the dynamics of a presidential election. The presidential or opposition candidate, whoever it is most likely to be, Tessie Lambourne, their performance in Parliament over the past four years and how they perform in the debates will really add to their campaign. People are really going to make their choice now, and, I think, it’s again your ability, your performance over the past four years and your popularity that will determine the winner.

Lemon Lemon
photo: Facebook/Rimon Rimon

The people decide who they might vote for. At the moment, we can’t predict in advance who the people are going to vote for. I think the new members might hold the balance of power, but I think it’s a decision that the people of the country make based on the performance of the candidates. They will have to look back at Tanetti’s performance, his policies, how he’s been in parliament, and I think that will influence the people’s decision and say, “Oh, should we vote for him?” It’s not certain who will be the main competitor. We know we’ve been talking about Tessie, but she has to go through a process within her own party before she can get the nomination.

DW: So, I guess Tessie Lambourne is probably the opposition candidate. But there has to be a third candidate, right?

Responsible Party: That’s just my own words. I usually call the third candidate a fake candidate because it has been that way in the past because they don’t really run for office. But, you know, they’ll get some votes from the people, but they won’t get a huge amount of votes. So the main two, of course, are the two major parties.

But Tessi is getting ready to accept the nomination and it depends on how united and collective the opposition party is in helping her get the nomination through. As is the nature of politics, anything can happen and the unexpected is always a factor in things like this. We may see a newcomer or we may not. I think only time will tell.

DW: The Kiribati government issued a very interesting statement last week, telling diplomats not to visit Kiribati between now and Christmas because there are elections there. Why would they do that?

Responsible Party: Look, we’re still trying to get in touch with the government. As you understand, sometimes it’s hard to get a response from the government, especially from the media. But we’re communicating with them, trying to understand this. But I think all this suggests is that there’s been a lot of disruption to the process that has prompted them to really take a look at the border and who’s coming in. I can’t really say who the key person here is.

I think in 2020, the interference may not be so intense, and now, why are they so confident to shut it down? Maybe to let the process proceed without any foreign interference. We are still negotiating with them and hope to get their answer before September 13.

Standard Tent
photo: RNZ / Jamie Tahana

But even if the news was not announced by the government itself, we got it from the media. They are now trying to explain that three days after the announcement, local people are confused, even locals are confused, and they think there is something fishy going on.

We have seen comments on social media from some key figures in the ruling party who have said that this is good for Kiribati and it will provide a fair process for the people to choose their president without any foreign interference.

Deutsche Welle: Does this apply to Chinese diplomats?

Responsible Party: Like I said, Don, we are still negotiating with them. I have not yet contacted the Chinese Embassy in Kiribati, I am working with the government right now, just trying to get a response from them. I have emailed the President’s office several times and they said they would call me back and tell me a suitable time.

But at the same time, we can only calculate and think that maybe there were a lot of disruptions that prompted them to close the border.