Voters in Kiribati head to the polls on Wednesday to determine the political fate of the China-friendly ruling party at a time of increasing geopolitical tension in the Pacific region.
Incumbent President Taneti Maamau has deepened ties with China during his two terms in office, from 2016 to 2024, and is vying to secure a third and final term. Voters will cast ballots to elect members of parliament in the first of two rounds of the general election, to be followed by a presidential contest in roughly a month.
China has been stepping up its presence in the Pacific, and in Kiribati this has taken the form of community policing assistance, infrastructure projects, including the upgrade of a World War II airstrip on Kanton Island, and agreements on fisheries and tourism.
Kiribati severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan as part of a turn toward China that the ruling Tobwaan Kiribati Party (TKP) said was necessary for the country’s “development aspirations.”
But there are doubts as to how much increased engagement with Beijing has improved the lives of the country’s 120,000 citizens. Frustration abounds regarding persistent fuel shortages and spotty public services, including hospitals that lack medical supplies, said Rimon Rimon, an investigative journalist based in Kiribati.
Rimon said Chinese-funded development projects are generally welcomed, but questioned their contribution to Kiribati’s development, pointing to the renovation of Taiwan Park. The recreational area was originally built when Kiribati still had diplomatic ties with the self-governing island. All Taiwan references were removed during the upgrade, with a new wall extolling China and Kiribati’s “everlasting friendship.”
He called such projects “important for China, but not for Kiribati.” The park “does not really impact people’s lives here,” but “erasing” a significant part of the country’s diplomatic history with Taiwan, which China claims is part of its territory, indicates that “the government is really doing things in [the] interest of its partner, rather than its people.”
“I think we are now one of the strongest bidders of the Chinese Communist Party, after [the] Solomon Islands,” Rimon added.
The Solomon Islands switched recognition to China days before Kiribati in 2019, and in 2022 it signed a police and security cooperation agreement with Beijing, raising alarm among traditional partners such as the U.S and Australia, who fear the agreement may lead to an expanded Chinese military presence in the Pacific.
However, for voters in Kiribati, China’s increasing visibility in the Pacific and Kiribati is unlikely to be a major issue, said Ruth Cross, a first-time candidate campaigning for one of three seats in the electorate of South Tarawa. Cross said constituents were more focused on plans for improving livelihoods, which include boosting education and entrepreneurship, with the goal of lessening the country’s reliance on foreign support.
Voters “don’t want to hear any talk about any of the [geopolitical] issues and things like that,” she said.
Opposition candidates from the Boutokaan Kiribati Moa (BKM) have brought up the controversial moves by Maamau, the incumbent, including his involvement in a constitutional crisis.
In 2022, Maamau suspended Australia-born judge David Lambourne from the High Court on unspecified allegations of misconduct, a move Lambourne claimed was retaliation against his wife, Tessie Lambourne, the leader of BKM. “This is just a very determined attempt by the government to try and force my wife out of politics,” he told Australia’s national broadcaster ABC in 2022.
Maamau later extended the suspension to all Court of Appeal judges who opposed Lambourne’s suspension, effectively leaving the country without judges serving on its higher courts for months, a move called “a huge blow to judicial independence” by a United Nations special rapporteur assigned to monitor the judiciary in Kiribati.
Due to a lack of polling data, there is no clear frontrunner in Wednesday’s vote. But Rimon said he did not expect a change in government, saying “the momentum is too strong for TKP to not get reelected back.”
He blamed limited access to accurate and unbiased reporting for citizens’ lack of awareness of institutional problems, noting the main source of news is state-owned Radio Kiribati. “It reports on only the things that the government wants the people to know,” said Rimon, who is also a board member of the Pacific Anti-Corruption Journalists Network. “So naturally, a lot of this information is actually propaganda.”
Citizens also favor the TKP’s flagship policy of unemployment support of 50 Australian dollars ($32.95) per month, which could “cloud their judgment on the real issues that are really critical,” according to Rimon, referring to Maamau’s treatment of judges and clampdown on press freedoms.
Wednesday’s ballot will be followed by a second round of voting next Monday. Some 114 candidates will be competing for 44 seats in the House of Assembly. Once parties are established, their members nominate a leader to run for the presidency. The presidential election takes place about a month later.
