Parliamentary elections were held in

Nauru Nauru ( or ; na, Naoero), officially the Republic of Nauru ( na, Repubrikin Naoero) and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Ki ...

on 3 May 2003 to elect members of the

Parliament of Nauru The Parliament of Nauru has 19 members, elected for a three-year term in multi-seat constituencies. The President of Nauru is elected by the members of the Parliament.

. The election took place with Nauru having economic difficulties and a large

budget deficit Within the budgetary process, deficit spending is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue over a particular period of time, also called simply deficit, or budget deficit; the opposite of budget surplus. The term may be applied to the budget ...

. This was the main issue in the election, which followed a period where a number of

presidents President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

had been elected for short periods of time. However the election resulted in deadlock for several weeks afterwards, with parliament divided between three candidates for president. It was only at the end of May that

Ludwig Scotty Ludwig Derangadage Scotty (born 20 June 1948) is a Nauruan politician who twice served as President of Nauru and was Speaker of Parliament five times between 2000 and 2016. He served as president from 29 May 2003 to 8 August 2003 and again from ...

was elected as the new president of Nauru and was able to form a new government.

Background

Under the

constitution of Nauru The constitution of the Republic of Nauru was adopted following national independence on 31 January 1968. In 2007 there were political debates in progress with a view to amend aspects of the Constitution, owing to the challenge of widely acknowle ...

the 18 members of parliament are elected at least every 3 years from 8

constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

. Voters rank the candidates with the top 2 candidates being elected from 7 constituencies and 4 being elected from the 8th constituency. The

President of Nauru The president of Nauru is elected by Parliament from among its members, and is both the head of state and the head of government of Nauru. Nauru's unicameral Parliament has 19 members, with an electoral term of 3 years. Political parties only p ...

is elected by the members of parliament from among themselves and can be removed by a majority vote in parliament. Following the last election in 2000

Bernard Dowiyogo Bernard Annen Auwen Dowiyogo (14 February 1946 – 9 March 2003) was a Nauruan politician who served as President of Nauru on seven separate occasions. During this time, he also served as a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Ubenide. ...

was elected president after the then president

René Harris René Reynaldo Harris (11 November 1947 – 5 July 2008) was President of the Republic of Nauru four times between 1999 and 2004. He was a Member of Parliament from 1977 to 2008.motion of non-confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

in April 2001 and Harris became president again. Harris served until 2003, but with the

increasing to almost half of Nauru's

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjec ...

by 2002 and many government workers having not been paid in months, he was ousted after an extended deadlock in parliament in January 2003. Dowiyogo became president once more and served until his death in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in March 2003.

Derog Gioura Derog Gioura (1 September 1932 – 25 September 2008) was a Nauruan political figure. He was President of the Republic of Nauru (acting) in 2003. Political role Gioura has been fighting many years with Kennan Adeang over a parliament ...

then became acting president until elections could be held in May.

Campaign

Major issues in the election included corruption and the mismanagement of the finances of Nauru, combined with declining incomes from the mining of

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...

. This had led the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...

to state that Nauru's economy was in big trouble, with many

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, infra ...

workers receiving their first pay in months on the day before the election. Another issue in the election was the detention centres set up in Nauru for people seeking

asylum in Australia Asylum in Australia has been granted to many refugees since 1945, when half a million Europeans displaced by World War II were given asylum. Since then, there have been periodic waves of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East, ...

. During the campaign for the election in which just under 4,500 people were eligible voters, the education minister

Anthony Audoa Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton ...

called on Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

to run the election, as he claimed that his country would be unable to conduct a free and fair election. However President Gioura said Audoa had no authority to make that call and said that Nauru did not need any help in running the election. Audoa had had responsibility for the

Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust The Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust (NPRT) was a sovereign wealth fund developed by the government of the Republic of Nauru in which the government invested money from the state-owned mining company, Nauru Phosphate Corporation. This money was th ...

removed by President Gioura and the two men had fallen out as a result.

Results

The results saw 6 new members of parliament elected, with the remaining 12 retaining their seats. 15 of those elected were not members of any party, while the

Nauru First Nauru First ( na, Naoero Amo) is the only formal political party in Nauru. Philosophy and leading members Its positions tend to be Liberalism, liberal, pro-government transparency (humanities), transparency, and Christian democracy, Christian ...

party had the other 3 members. Among the new members were 2 of the Nauru First party and the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

gold medallist

Marcus Stephen Marcus Ajemada Stephen (born 1 October 1969) is a Nauruan politician and former sportsperson who previously was a member of the Cabinet of Nauru, and who served as President of Nauru from December 2007 to November 2011. The son of Nauruan parli ...

. While 5 sitting members lost seats including the education minister Anthony Audoa; the president Derog Gioura and the former presidents

Kinza Clodumar Kinza Godfrey Clodumar (8 February 1945 – 29 November 2021) was a Nauruan politician who served as President of Nauru from 1997 to 1998. Background Clodumar was born in Boe. He was a member of the indigenous population of Nauru, and he was c ...

and Rene Harris were re-elected.

Presidential election

Following the election Parliament met to elect a new president but was unable to reach agreement.

Godfrey Thoma Godfrey Awaire Thoma (born 22 January 1957) is a Nauruan politician and police officer. Member of Parliament Thoma started his first term in the parliament after being elected in 1995, ousting Theodore Moses after only three years. He had be ...

was initially elected

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

but resigned the following day as the speaker initially did not get a vote in the presidential election. With parliament evenly split between supporters of former president Kinza Clodumar, Nauru First member

David Adeang David Waiau Adeang (born 24 November 1969) is a Nauruan politician, former Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru, and Nauru's Minister of Finance and Justice, as well as the Minister Assisting the President of Nauru. He is a founding member of the ...

and

, nobody was then willing to be elected speaker. The deadlock continued for several weeks with calls for new elections to break the stalemate. However towards the end of May the impasse was broken when 2 of the 3 factions reached agreement. As a result, Nauru First member

Fabian Ribauw Fabian Dominic Ribauw (born January 18, 1971) is a political figure from the Pacific nation of Nauru. Background and political role Ribauw was born in Baitsi. He studied in Australia and earned a BA in Economics from La Trobe University, Melb ...

was elected speaker and in return Ludwig Scotty was able to get enough support to become president. Scotty was elected president by 10 votes to 7 for Kinza Clodumar.

References

External links

Constituency results
{{Nauruan elections Elections in Nauru

2003 in Nauru Election and referendum articles with incomplete results