New Zealand congratulated Kiribati’s Taneti Maamau after the pro-China president was elected on Saturday to a third term in charge of the low-lying Pacific island nation.
According to the New Zealand High Commission in Kiribati, Maamau received 20,676 votes, equating to about 55 percent support at the polls, to head off nearest challenger Kaotitaaake Kokoria, who received about 42 percent support.
Chief Justice Tetiro Semilota publicly declared Maamau the winner of the presidential election and conveyed her congratulations, the High Commission said in a statement.
Maamau, 64, had been tipped as a hot favourite to remain president — or Beretitenti — of the country of around 120,000 people, with his two rivals both hailing from his own ruling Tobwaan Kiribati Party (TKP).
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was among the first to offer congratulations.
“Warm congratulations to President Maamau on the Kiribati election results,” Luxon said in a social media post.
“We look forward to working with the Government of Kiribati to deliver on our shared priorities,”
Maamau had retained his seat by a landslide in August parliamentary elections that were dominated by concerns about the cost of living, rising sea levels and relations with Beijing.
Members of the new Parliament then nominated three candidates, including Kokoria, who defected from the ruling party in a late surprise leading up to the election.
Maamau switched diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019 in the hope that the world’s second-largest economy would help Kiribati meet ambitious development goals.
However, he unexpectedly criticised China’s test firing of a ballistic missile in the Pacific last month.
In a social media post, Maamau said his country hadn’t been warned and “does not welcome” its regional ally’s act — the first such weapons test by Beijing in four decades which sparked fierce criticism from around the South Pacific, where the dummy warhead splashed down.
