Ngiratkel Etpison (3 May 1925 – 1 August 1997) was a politician and businessman from

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...

. Etpison was elected President in 1988 and served from 1989 until 1993, becoming the country’s first elected president to serve a full term in office.

Election

He was elected the country's president in the 1988 elections, the final elections conducted under a

plurality voting system Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which a candidate, or candidates, who poll more than any other counterpart (that is, receive a plurality), are elected. In systems based on single-member districts, it elects just one member per ...

, in which he received just 26% of the votes cast, defeating opponent

Roman Tmetuchl Roman Tmetuchl (February 11, 1926 – July 1, 1999) was a Palauan political leader and businessman. He grew up in Japanese-controlled Palau and joined the Kempeitai, the Japanese secret police, during World War II. After the war, he became the ...

by a margin of 31 votes. The near-tie led

elections in Palau On a national level, the citizens of Palau elect a president, who serves a four-year term, and acts as head of state. A national bicameral legislature, is also elected, consisting of the Palau National Congress (''Olbiil era Kelulau'') and the Sen ...

to be reformed, and after that they were conducted under

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster second round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...

if no candidate received more than half of all votes cast. He served from 1 January 1989 to 1 January 1993. He ran again in the 1992 elections, but attracted just 2,084 votes compared to rivals

Johnson Toribiong Johnson Toribiong (born 22 July 1946) is a Palauan attorney and politician. ...

with 3,188 votes and Kuniwo Nakamura with 3,125 votes.

Presidency

Ngiratkel Etpison was the first president that survived his entire presidency. (

Haruo Remeliik Haruo Ignacio Remeliik (1 June 1933 – 30 June 1985) was a politician from Palau. He served as the first President of Palau from 2 March 1981 until his assassination on 30 June 1985. He is buried at Kloulklubed in his home state of Peleliu. R ...

was murdered and

Lazarus Salii Lazarus Eitaro Salii (17 November 1936 – 20 August 1988) was a politician from Palau. He served as the second elected President of Palau from 25 October 1985 until he committed suicide on 20 August 1988, amid bribery allegations. Salii was el ...

committed suicide by shooting, both while in office.) While in office, Etpison proposed a request to the United States of America to grant Palau independence from its 43-year U.N. trusteeship. Because of the Palauan constitutional requirement of achieving a 75% majority vote, the initial proposal was overturned. This proposal would later develop into the Compact of Free Association, an agreement with the United States that would grant independence to the Republic of Palau. The Compact of Free Association was approved by the United States in 1994 under Kuniwo Nakamura after negotiating a 50-year stimulus plan to support Palau's founding of its new Republic in exchange for military assets in land.

Business work

Ngiratkel Etpison founded the NECO group of companies in 1945. He started by using a Japanese scrapped generator to make ice candy, later becoming one of the prominent businessmen of Palau. He started the first tourist and sightseeing business in the 1970s, and in 1984 opened Palau Pacific Resort, Palau's most luxurious beach resort. He died on Aug 1, 1997 in California, United States. His daughter Mandy T. Etpison managing his museum and she is the current director of the museum.

References

1925 births 1997 deaths People from Koror Presidents of Palau {{Palau-politician-stub