1983 Kiribati presidential election

Re-election of Ieremia Tabai July 2024 Kiribati presidential 1982 Kiribati presidential election 1982 1987 Kiribati presidential election 1987 17 February 1983 69.3% ( 13.1pp) Ieremia Tabai (cropped).png 8,597 49.61% 3x4.svg 4,799 27.70% 2,814 16.24% 1,118 6.45% dcdcdc dcdcdc dcdcdc dcdcdc President Ieremia Tabai Ieremia Tabai Ieremia Tabai Harry Tong Teatao Teannaki Tewareka Tentoa Home island Nonouti Tabuaeran 100px File:Teatao Teannaki 2014 (cropped).jpg 3x4.svg Abaiang Onotoa 1983 Kiribati presidential election margin of victory map.svg Map of margin of victory by constituency Presidential elections were held in Kiribati on 17 February 1983. Four candidates were chosen from members of parliament: incumbent president Ieremia Tabai, vice-president Teatao Teannaki, who was an ally of Tabai, opposition member Tewareka Tentoa, and newly elected opposition member Harry Tong. Tabai was re-elected with 49.61% of the vote. The 1983 election was held only one year after the previous election, having been triggered by a motion of no confidence against Tabai's government. The motion of no confidence was nominally about a bill adjusting the pay of government officials, but the opposition cited broader concerns with Tabai's economic policy. Turnout was only 69.3% of registered voters, which marked a significant decrease from the previous election. After winning re-election and serving a full term, Tabai went on to be re-elected again in 1987. Background Ieremia Tabai was the first president of Kiribati, initially elected to the office with the title "chief minister" in 1978.Van Trease 1993 18–20 He was re-elected to the office, now called president, in the 1982 presidential election.Somoza 2001 674, 682 Only 17 of 32 members of parliament supported him after the parliamentary election of the same year, and the short-lived opposition party Wiia I-Kiribati was created afterwards.Van Trease 1993 56 When it was discovered that parliament had mistakenly tied the salaries of six statutory officers to that of the public service, Tabai's government introduced a bill to fix the discrepancy in December 1982. As a political manoeuvre against Tabai, the opposition refused to vote for the bill. He raised the bill again, this time tying it to a motion of no confidence. It failed with 15 in favour and 20 against, and the government was dissolved so new elections could be held. There was some confusion and disagreement around this. Some of Tabai's allies were against Tabai's gambit, while some of the opposition did not realise that voting against it would cause them to stand for re-election.Van Trease 1993 56 Wiia I-Kiribati interpreted Tabai's motion as a threat, implying that they had to support the bill or risk losing their seats. Tabai countered that if it were a threat, then he would be threatening his own government as well. Wiia I-Kiribati justified its decision to vote against Tabai's government, saying that it also lacked confidence in the government for economic reasons. Their grievances included the costs of a Boeing 747 in the state airline Air Tungaru and the government's subsidies for a shipping corporation.Van Trease 1993 56Schutz 1983 13 While the elections were pending, the government of Kiribati was run by the Council of State, which included the Speaker of the House, the chairman of the Public Service Commission, and the Chief Justice.Schutz 1983 13 Kiribati held its 1983 parliamentary election on 12 and 19 January, and Tabai saw a net increase of two supporters in parliament.Van Trease 1993 57 Candidates and campaign Parliament selected Ieremia Tabai, Teatao Teannaki, Tewareka Tentoa, and Harry Tong as candidates in the election. Tabai and Teannaki were the same candidates nominated by the government in the previous year's presidential election, while Tentoa and Tong were selected by the opposition.Van Trease 1993 57 Tabai's ally Roniti Teiwaki believed that the election was fought on a personal level, with the pro-labour opposition holding an animosity for Tabai after the polarising 1980 strike.Van Trease 1993 57–59 Tabai was a member of parliament from Nonouti,Van Trease 1993 18 and the incumbent president when the motion of no confidence passed.Van Trease 1993 56 According to Teiwaki, Tabai was weary with politics and reluctant to run for president again.Van Trease 1993 59 He was popular in Kiribati and the favourite to win the election.Van Trease 1993 57 Teannaki was a member of parliament for Abaiang and Tabai's vice-president.Macdonald 1983 68 Tentoa was a member of parliament from Onotoa, first elected in 1982.Van Trease 1993 57 Tong was a newly elected member of parliament from the Teinainano Urban Council constituency.Van Trease 1993 57 His family was involved in the private sector in South Tarawa, and he opposed what he felt were unfair advantages that the government exercised when competing with struggling businesses.Van Trease 1993 59 Before entering politics, he had been a medical practitioner.Van Trease 1993 57 Results The election was held on 17 February.Van Trease 1993 57 Tabai won re-election with 49.6% of the vote. His ally Teannaki received 16.2%, meaning that 65.8% of voters supported the government candidates.Van Trease 1993 60 Turnout decreased from the previous year's presidential election, with only 69.3% of registered voters turning out instead of the 82.4% in 1982. By this point, voters had been asked to turn out for three elections in 1982 and three more in 1983.Van Trease 1993 57 Ieremia Tabai 8597 Harry Tong 4799 Teatao Teannaki 2814 Tewareka Tentoa 1118 69.3 SomozaSomoza 2001 682 By constituency +Vote share percentage by constituencyVan Trease 1993 58 Constituency Tabai Teannaki Tong Tentoa Abaiang12.573.77.95.9 Abemama56.220.219.73.8 Aranuka65.323.04.67.1 Arorae95.50.21.00.4 Banaba76.214.34.84.8 Beru71.411.88.38.5 Betio42.311.942.12.6 Butaritari23.312.362.42.0 Kiritimati27.44.260.48.0 Kuria59.721.615.44.2 Maiana54.810.527.28.8 Makin58.111.229.21.3 Marakei14.86.772.95.6 Nikunau75.415.76.02.9 Nonouti84.310.54.40.8 North Tarawa30.623.742.13.6 Onotoa66.73.12.427.9 Tabiteuea North67.710.815.65.9 Tabiteuea South84.36.14.35.4 Tabuaeran17.33.825.453.5 Tamana97.00.01.81.1 TUC Teinainano Urban Council40.111.345.03.6 Teraina4.29.15.681.1Total49.616.227.76.5 Aftermath Tabai built his new government to ensure that different religious and regional groups were represented, but he did not make any outreach to the opposition and filled the government exclusively with his supporters.Van Trease 1993 59 This included Teannaki, who returned to his position as vice president.PIM 1983 5 Tabai was re-elected again in the 1987 election.Somoza 2001 683 A challenge to his candidacy in 1987 determined that 1983 was only the second time Tabai was elected president.Van Trease 1993 65–66Somoza 2001 675 This was because his 1978 election under the colonial government was determined to be separate from his presidential elections, and he succeeded to the presidency upon independence.Ghai Cottrell 1990 70 Teannaki was also a candidate in the 1987 election, and he then won the presidency in the 1991 election. Tentoa was a candidate in the 1994 election, while Tong was a candidate in the 1998 election.Somoza 2001 682 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 1 April 1983 Ieremia Tabai Back As Kiribati President https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-339678036/view?sectionId=nla.obj-356441664&searchTerm=Tabai&partId=nla.obj-339764345#page/n4/ Pacific Islands Monthly 54 4 5 PIM 1983 Schutz Billy 1 February 1983 Airline, shipping issues in fall of Kiribati government https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-339617950/view?sectionId=nla.obj-356420165&searchTerm=tabai&partId=nla.obj-339705983#page/n12/ Pacific Islands Monthly 54 2 13 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 Kiribati President Category:Presidential elections in Kiribati Category:Non-partisan elections in Kiribati Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results