1978 Gilbertese Chief Minister election

Election of Ieremia Tabai July 2024 July 2024 1978 03 17 y 1978 Gilbertese Chief Minister election Gilbert Islands presidential 73.5% Ieremia Tabai 8,782 55.61% Roniti Teiwaki 3,897 24.68% Babera Kirata 1,844 11.68% Taomati Iuta 1,270 8.04% File:Ieremia Tabai (cropped).png 3x4.svg 3x4.svg File:Taomati Iuta (cropped).png 1982 Kiribati presidential election 1982 100px dcdcdc dcdcdc dcdcdc dcdcdc Home island Nonouti Betio Onotoa Beru Naboua Ratieta Ieremia Tabai Chief Minister File:1978 Gilbertese Chief Minister election margin of victory map.svg Map of margin of victory by constituency The Gilbert Islands held its first national election to choose a chief minister on 17 March 1978. Opposition leader Ieremia Tabai won with 55.6% of the vote, following a voter turnout of 73.5%. The election for chief minister came after the parliamentary election of the same year and the new parliament's unanimous vote to replace the appointed chief minister with one that was popularly elected. Parliament voted to determine which four candidates would be on the ballot, choosing Taomati Iuta, Babera Kirata, Ieremia Tabai, and Roniti Teiwaki. The previous chief minister, Naboua Ratieta, was unpopular in the new parliament, so its members coordinated to assure that he was not selected for the ballot. The four candidates on the ballot were allies, so they agreed that the two lesser-known candidates would campaign to introduce themselves to voters while the other two would not. Following Tabai's victory, he led the country's independence process and the position of chief minister was renamed President of Kiribati. Tabai was re-elected in the 1982, 1983, and 1987 elections. The 1987 election was disputed because it was unclear whether the 1978 election counted toward Tabai's term limit. Background As the Gilbert Islands prepared for independence from the United Kingdom, a constitutional convention was held in 1977. Among its suggestions was that the chief minister be chosen through a popular vote,Van Trease 1993 18, 48 which was endorsed by the House of Assembly that year.McIntyre 2014 227 The citizens elected members for a new government in the 1978 parliamentary election, which was held on 1 and 6 February. High turnout indicated a newfound public interest in politics as post-independence leaders were being chosen.Van Trease 1993 16 The parliamentary opposition saw a surge in support, brought in part by the campaigning of opposition leader Ieremia Tabai, who criticised the government of incumbent chief minister Naboua Ratieta and travelled outside of Tarawa to the outer islands so as to gain their support.Van Trease 1993 16–17 Of Ratieta's fifteen supporters in the legislature, eight lost their re-election campaigns. The new parliament met on 20 February 1978, and it voted unanimously to implement popular elections for the chief minister as recommended by the constitutional convention.Van Trease 1993 18 Campaign Candidates Candidates were to be chosen from the members of parliament,Somoza 2001 677 and five entered themselves into consideration: Taomati Iuta, Babera Kirata, Naboua Ratieta, Ieremia Tabai, and Roniti Teiwaki. Iuta, Kirata, Tabai, and Teiwaki were all allies against Ratieta.Van Trease 1993 18 Ratieta was the member of parliament for Marakei.Van Trease 1993 18 He had been the chief minister since 1974, aligned with an unofficial group called the National Progressive Party. He was associated with the northern Catholic population of the Gilbert Islands and was seen as the anti-labour candidate.Somoza 2001 673 Though Ratieta's introduction of a National Provident Fund raised salaries prior to the election, the corresponding raise in taxes angered the pro-labour public.Van Trease 1993 18 Unlike the other candidates, he believed that the Gilbert Islands should have a national defence force.Van Trease 1993 17 Tabai was the member of parliament for Nonouti,Van Trease 1993 18 and the leader of the opposition against Ratieta's government.Van Trease 1993 16 He was first elected to parliament in 1974, and he rose to prominence through his vocal criticism of Ratieta's policies, particularly Ratieta's decision to create a defence force.McIntyre 2014 227–228 Tabai positioned himself as an advocate for the outer islands, which he felt were neglected by the government.Van Trease 1993 17 Before entering politics, he had worked as a civil servant with the treasury.McIntyre 2014 227 Iuta was the member of parliament for Beru.Van Trease 1993 18 He had just started his first term in parliament after winning his constituency's election in February. Before entering politics, he was the manager of Atoll Products with the Development Authority, and he had previously worked as a teacher.Macdonald 1983 63 Kirata was the member of parliament for Onotoa.Van Trease 1993 18 He had previously been Secretary for Finance and Secretary for Commerce and Industries as part of a civil service career, and he had been a member of parliament from 1967 to 1971.Macdonald 1983 63 Iuta and Kirata were less known to the public, relative to the other candidates.Van Trease 1993 18Macdonald 1983 63 Teiwaki was the member of parliament for BetioVan Trease 1993 18 and had previously been the leader of the opposition.Macdonald 1983 59 Unlike his Protestant allies in the election, Teiwaki was Catholic.Macdonald 1983 63 Selection by parliament Of the candidates, parliament was to choose four of them to appear on the ballot.Somoza 2001 676 An alliance formed with the goal of keeping Ratieta off of the ballot, with 26 members of parliament meeting twice in Tarawa to coordinate.Macdonald 1983 62 There was no agreement on which other candidate they should support.Van Trease 1993 18 The voting method for candidate selection had yet to be decided and was to be announced by the colonial governor. Either they would each be allowed to submit one name, or they would be allowed to submit four.Macdonald 1983 62 Should they be allowed to vote in favour of four candidates, they would choose the four besides Ratieta, keeping him off of the ballot. If they were allowed to choose only one candidate, one of the four would resign from the race so the remaining three would all qualify for the ballot and run against Ratieta. They held a vote and decided that Iuta would step aside in this scenario.Macdonald 1983 63 Each member of parliament was ultimately permitted to choose four names to put on the ballot.McIntyre 2014 227 Ratieta's opponents successfully kept him from qualifying, with two-thirds of parliament voting for the other four candidates.Van Trease 1993 18 Ratieta criticised the selection process, arguing that if every member of parliament was allowed to select four names, then there would be no ideological diversity on the ballot.Macdonald 1983 63 The four candidates were exceptionally young relative to the country's usual expectation for a respected elder that was traditionally associated with leadership. All four were under the age of 40, and youngest candidate, Tabai, was only 27. Previous elections indicated that voters were moving away from age in favour of expertise as a qualifying factor.Macdonald 1983 63 Public campaign All four candidates gave a prerecorded speech that was broadcast over the radio. As all of the candidates were aligned with one another, there was no conflict or animosity during the campaign. They agreed that the people should decide who among them was best fit to be chief minister. Iuta and Kirata campaigned to introduce themselves to the voters, while Tabai and Teiwaki did not, as they were already well-known figures in I-Kiribati politics.Van Trease 1993 18Macdonald 1983 63 Results The election was held on 17 March 1978, with a turnout of 73.5% of registered voters.Van Trease 1993 18–19 This was the first election to be held at-large across the Gilbert Islands, which was a divergence from the parliamentary elections where candidates were elected by individual constituencies where they had strong ties.Macdonald 1983 63 Tabai was elected chief minister with 55.6% of the vote.Macdonald 1983 63Somoza 2001 682 He received the most votes of any candidate in fourteen of the twenty-three constituencies, and he placed second in the other nine.Van Trease 1993 19 Tabai had appeal across several demographics, subverting the nation's usual North–South and Catholic–Protestant divides.Van Trease 1993 19–20 Each candidate benefited from the favourite son effect, showing a strong performance in their home constituencies.Macdonald 1983 63 Ieremia Tabai 8782 Roniti Teiwaki 3897 Babera Kirata 1844 Taomati Iuta 1270 SomozaSomoza 2001 682 By constituency +Vote share percentage by constituencyVan Trease 1993 19ConstituencyTabaiTeiwakiKirataIutaAbaiang38.156.73.12.5Abemama53.324.711.98.1Aranuka75.813.56.24.5Arorae87.22.29.11.5Banaba42.419.629.58.5Beru26.43.83.066.8*Betio56.129.5*5.68.8Butaritari37.653.72.16.6Kiritimati32.432.321.911.5Kuria70.916.33.73.1Maiana91.83.61.63.0Makin19.471.23.26.2Marakei35.747.95.311.1Nikunau88.15.14.52.3Nonouti97.2*1.90.50.4North Tarawa20.073.73.52.8Onotoa13.01.684.7*0.7Tabiteuea North93.22.51.82.5Tabiteuea South87.93.06.13.0Tabuaeran19.046.132.05.9Tamana61.62.533.72.2TUC Teinainano Urban Council64.124.66.94.4Teraina23.623.648.74.1TotalThese are the more widely reported percentages,Macdonald 1983 63Somoza 2001 682 which differ by 0.1% from those reported by Howard Van Trease in the original source of this table: 55.5, 24.6, 11.8, and 8.1, respectively.Van Trease 1993 1955.624.711.78.0 Home constituencies are denoted with an asterisk. Aftermath After becoming chief minister, Tabai formed his government exclusively with members of the alliance that had forced Ratieta off the ballot. He gave ministry portfolios to the other three candidates from the ballot, appointing Iuta as Minister for Natural Resource Development, Kirata as Minister for Health and Community Affairs and Teiwaki as Minister for Trade and Communications.Macdonald 1983 64–65 Tabai's election as chief minister gave him a central role in the negotiations for independence.Van Trease 1993 20 Iuta, Kirata, and Teiwaki were all part of his delegation.Van Trease 1993 20 The Gilbert Islands became an independent nation on 12 July 1979, and Tabai's title switched from chief minister to the new equivalent new role, President of Kiribati.Somoza 2001 674 After independence, Tabai formed a new government with Iuta as Minister for Trade, Industry, and Labour, Kirata as Minister for Works and Utilities, and Teiwaki as Minister for Natural Resource Development.Macdonald 1983 65 To prevent another instance of the parliamentary majority choosing all four candidates, the selection process was changed to preferential voting in the 1982 election.Somoza 2001 676 Tabai was re-elected as president in the 1982, 1983, and 1987 elections.Somoza 2001 683 The legal nature of Tabai's 1978 victory became an issue in the 1987 presidential election. The constitution placed limits on the President of Kiribati so that the same person could only be elected to the office a maximum of three times. If Tabai's election as chief minister counted as a presidential election, then he would have reached the limit and would therefore be ineligible in 1987.Van Trease 1993 64–65 One of his opponents, Harry Tong, filed two legal challenges, but the court found that he lacked standing in both cases.Van Trease 1993 65 The 1978 election was ultimately determined to be separate, with his initial presidency being considered a succession when the new constitution came into force.Ghai Cottrell 1990 70 Notes References Ghai Yash P. https://archive.org/details/headsofstateinpa0000ghai/ registration Heads of State in the Pacific: A Legal and Constitutional Analysis Cottrell Jill 1990 Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific 978-982-02-0017-3 Macdonald Barrie 1983 Elections in Kiribati https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/003231878303500104 subscription Political Science 35 1 58–70 10.1177/003231878303500104 0032-3187 McIntyre W. David Winding up the British Empire in the Pacific Islands https://academic.oup.com/book/1395 subscription 2014 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-177214-6 Somoza Alexander Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook: Volume II: South East Asia, East Asia, and the South Pacific 2001 Oxford University Press 9780191600012 Nohlen Dieter Kiribati https://academic.oup.com/book/36353/chapter/319884688 subscription Grotz Florian Hartmann Christof 673–686 Van Trease Howard Atoll Politics: The Republic of Kiribati https://books.google.com/books?id=7rg-swcHq9QC 1993 Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies 978-0-9583300-0-8 Gilbert Islands Chief Minister Category:Elections in Kiribati Category:Non-partisan elections Gilbert Islands