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Victors and Spoils

KIRIBATI

The Tobwaan Kiribati Party (TKP) holds a sufficiently large majority in the parliament of Kiribati, a low-lying atoll nation of about 130,000 people, that every candidate allowed to run for president is a member of that party.

Under the central Pacific Ocean country’s laws, parliament picks which candidates can run for president called a “beretitenti” on Oct. 25. A maximum of four are allowed to run. As a result, the TKP did nothing illegal when it didn’t allow an opposition candidate on the ballot.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t controversial, however.

“Over the past eight years under the TKP, we have seen Kiribati rapidly decline into authoritarianism and isolationism,” opposition leader Tessie Lambourne told Radio New Zealand. “It seems that Kiribati is now a one-party state, and her people are suffering as a result.”

Lambourne elaborated by saying that basic public services like schools, utility infrastructure and hospitals have “deteriorated to the point of near collapse.” During that same period, the country has experienced strained relations with its Pacific neighbors, tensions with traditional ally Australia and a continuing constitutional crisis, noted Al Jazeera.

Still, observers at Nikkei Asia wrote that incumbent Kiribati President Taneti Maamau, a former ambassador to Taiwan who is considered pro-China, was in pole position to land a third term in office. Maamau’s TKP defeated Lambourne’s Boutokaan Kiribati Moa Party in parliamentary elections in August, Reuters added.

Now Maamau is running against other members of his own party who presumably have few reasons to mount a rival campaign to their sitting president and party’s titular head. His confidence as polls open might reflect why the president has promised to cut taxes, invest in infrastructure, and improve the country’s welfare system but neglected to offer details on funding these policies, Islands Business noted.

Perhaps China could fund that construction. In 2019, Kiribati severed ties with Taiwan and adopted a pro-China foreign stance, explained CNN. Its decision was part of a trend of sovereign Pacific islands switching allegiances in part because China promised aid and commerce to help them develop prosperous economies and combat climate change, especially rising sea levels.

Before the parliamentary elections in August, the Chinese ambassador to Kiribati, Zhou Limin, wrote a public letter to the Kirabatian people. “In the past year, I have observed an increase in the number of cars on the roads, a wider range of goods in supermarkets, and new entertainment equipment at playgrounds, which are strong proof of the improvement of (the) Kiribati people’s life quality,” he wrote, according to the Guardian.

Chinese police officers also work in Kiribati, their presence concerning US and Australian officials because the country is considered strategic: It is relatively close to Hawaii and controls one of the biggest exclusive economic zones in the world, wrote Reuters.

Meanwhile, American, Australian, Japanese, and other Western countries have sought to counter this Chinese support, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute wrote. That will be difficult, however – Kiribati recently instituted a ban on foreign officials in the country until 2025 to stop “checkbook diplomacy” and counter foreign influence – as well as international scrutiny.

That ban won’t hurt China’s influence, either, say analysts: Chinese money appears to have already fostered a state with one party – just like China – that favors it.

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