Kiribati’s pro-China president retained his parliamentary seat in a landslide, according to the first results of an election that hinged heavily on worries about the cost of living, rising sea levels and closer ties with Beijing.
Results posted by the Pacific nation’s Ministry of Culture and Internal Affairs yesterday showed that Kiribati President Taneti Maamau won his Onotoa seat with almost 83 percent of the vote.
It was a thunderous endorsement that puts the 63-year-old in a strong position to extend his almost decade-long tenure as president in a separate vote later this year.
Photo: Reuters
Wednesday’s election was seen, in part, as a referendum on Maamau’s embrace of Beijing.
In 2019, Maamau ditched relations with Taiwan, betting that ties with the world’s second-largest economy would help Kiribati meet ambitious 2036 development goals.
His chief rival, opposition leader Tessie Lambourne, also won her seat yesterday, garnering more than 50 percent of the vote and avoiding a second-round runoff despite a tough race.
Earlier this year, Maamau sacked and effectively deported Lambourne’s Australian-born partner, David Lamborne, then a high court judge.
The Kiribati parliament is to sit on Sept. 13, when a new speaker and candidates for the presidential election would be chosen.
Low-lying Kiribati faces a raft of economic and environmental challenges, such as rising sea levels that regularly taint scarce supplies of drinking water.
With outer atolls already under threat from coastal erosion, the capital, Tarawa, has become one of the world’s most densely populated places, on a par even with Tokyo. Residents are plagued by contagious diseases and other symptoms of overcrowding.
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