Pacific

Nauru gets second woman MP, first in nearly 30 years

17:51 pm on 9 June 2013

There will be some new faces in the next Nauru parliament, but most sitting candidates have held on to their seats after Saturday's poll including 3 former presidents.

All results are yet to be confirmed but there will be a woman MP in the legislature for the first time with Charmaine Scotty just the second woman ever elected.

Don Wiseman has more details.

"68 candidates had lined up for the 19 seats - that's one more seat than earlier parliaments and a device MPs hope will help stop the seemingly endless parliamentary stalemates. One of several newcomers is Aaron Stein Cook who tipped out the Speaker Godfrey Thoma. Mr Thoma had courted controversy prior to the poll when he delayed the event by refusing to accept the advice of President Sprent Dabwido that elections be called. Mr Dabwido, who declared a state of emergency, which limited access to media for candidates, two weeks out from the poll, topped the vote in his 3 seat Meneng constituency. Charmaine Scotty, who is married to a cousin of a former president, Ludwig Scotty, follows Ruby Thoma, the first woman voted into the Nauru parliament nearly 30 years ago. Also winning Ms Scotty's Yaren constituency was former finance and foreign minister, Dr Kieren Keke."