29 Nov 2011

Kiribati presidential election to be on December the 30th

2:33 pm on 29 November 2011

The election for Kiribati's president will be held on December the 30th.

The country's parliament, elected last month, sat for the first time last week, and MPs nominated three candidates for President.

They are the incumbent , Anote Tong, Doctor Tetaua Taitai and the previous parliament's opposition leader, Rimeta Beniamina.

The chief electoral officer, Rine Ueara says voter registration has been re-opened and will be closed 2 weeks before the poll.

"The past trend is that they get lower in presidential elections. They're much higher in MP elections. I don't know the interests of people, maybe they're very interested in selecting their MPs, rather than selecting the president. But we're still doing some campaigns on radio and trying to motivate people.''"

Rine Ueara says ballot papers are being printed now.