(Reuters) – The remote Pacific Island nation of Kiribati holds a national election on Wednesday at which major issues for voters are the government’s close ties to China and a softer stance on global climate advocacy, competing with cost of living pressures.
A nation of 115,000 residents, Kiribati is considered strategic despite being small, because it is relatively close to Hawaii and controls more than 3.5 million sq km (1.4 million sq miles) of Pacific Ocean.
President Taneti Maamau, who switched Kiribati’s ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019, has won Chinese development support but also courted international controversy after the sacking and deportation of an Australian-born high court judge who is married to Kiribati’s Opposition leader.
Kiribati’s loose political groupings are typical of several Pacific Island nations, where many candidates run as individuals and voters directly elect the president later, from a shortlist chosen by the new lawmakers.
An audit by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association this year recommended that Kiribati introduce campaign financing laws – there is currently no monitoring of election spending – and restore constitutional free-speech protections.
In February, Reuters reported that Chinese police had begun working in Kiribati, a sensitive issue for neighbour the United States, which signed a 1983 treaty providing for consultation before Kiribati allows third-party military use of its islands.
China’s police force donated riot control gear last month, pledging to “solidify collaboration in law enforcement and policing”, the Kiribati police said in a statement on Facebook.
A U.S. request to establish an embassy has meanwhile stalled.
Chloe Karea, 27, a travel agent in Tarawa, who recently returned home to Kiribati from studies in Britain, was disappointed to find she could not register for Wednesday’s vote because of identification requirements.
“It’s a really important election and could be pivotal because we have a lot of activity with China. It will show the people’s opinion on what has been happening,” she said in a telephone interview.
Voting is not compulsory in Kiribati, and Wednesday’s ballot is the first of two rounds of voting for members of parliament, to be followed by the vote for president.
“A lot of female candidates and lawyers have put themselves up for election,” Karea added.
Kiribati was left without a functioning appeals court system in 2022 after the government suspended all three Court of Appeal judges and the chief justice.
A popular government policy of paying a monthly allowance to people of voting age who do not work, and a subsidy on the cost of copra, could win over some voters, Karea said.
The election “will let the people say if they are satisfied or not”, said Robert Karora, project manager for the Kiribati Climate Action Network.
“We definitely need a change – so that climate change issues are taken seriously,” he said in a telephone interview.
Under past governments, Kiribati had been a prominent campaigner on the global stage for climate change issues, he said.
Maamau’s government has backed deep sea mining, an issue that put it at odds with environmental groups.
The Kiribati government did not respond to a request for comment.
