Kiribati elections: Voters wait for final results

• First round of polls were held on 14 August, where 25 MPs confirmed their seats for the Maneaba ni Maungatabu (Parliament).
• The incumbent president, Taneti Maamau, and the former opposition leader, Tessie Lambourne, have retained their seats.
• Voters were out to elect 19 candidates in the second round on Monday.

Voters in Kiribati are awaiting the final results of the runoff round of elections on Monday.

Twenty five of the 45 parliamentary seats were confirmed in the first round on Wednesday last week, with those candidates securing more than a 50 percent share of votes.

The remaining seats are set to be divvied up among the highest polling candidates in the each electorate.

A local resident in Tarawa, Tulua Tinau, told RNZ Pacific candidates from the incumbent government did well in outer-island seats, in the first round.

But he said the runoff election contest for seats in the capital is much tighter.

"We can talk about the majority populations living on Tarawa and they are the ones that are going to give the final decision to which government is come back because they have the most population living on Tarawa and Betio," he said.

"They are the ones that want the [previous] governmnet to come back."

Bread and butter issues like health, education and household income were at the forefront of public debate in Kiribati ahead of Monday's runoff round of voting, he said.

Tinau said although geopolitics has dominated regional politics, domestic issues, such as government subsidies for copra, were the most talked about in these polls.

"During this election, nobody has mentioned China. I do not see people tlaking about China during this elections. I think China is trying to distance itself from the issues going around," he said.

Counting is currently underway and according to unofficial updates shared on the Bwaai aika a riki iaon Kiribati (What's happening in Kiribati) Facebook group - which has over 68,000 members - there are four more polling stations left to count in the South Tarawa (TUC) constituency.