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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SUVA 000309 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/09/2031 
TAGS: PGOV TV
SUBJECT: TUVALU ELECTIONS: NEW GROUPING TAKES THE REINS 
 
 
Classified By: Charge Ted A. Mann.  Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: Tuvalu's governing coalition of seven 
independent MPs supporting PM Maatia Toafa was resoundingly 
defeated August 3.  AmEmbassy officer observed the elections 
and concurs with the general observation that the vote was 
free and fair.  Based on still unconfirmed reports from 
contacts, the outlines of a new coalition, formed around 
re-elected opposition MP Kausea Natano, has begun to take 
shape.  A 48-year-old businessman from the capital island of 
Funafuti, Kausea is a former assistant secretary in the 
Ministry of Finance.  The new grouping, if it holds together 
and forms the next government, looks to have an overall 
majority of nine in the 15-member parliament, consisting of 
four new MPs and five returning Opposition MPs.  A rumor 
emerged from the initial coalition talks that four members of 
the new and returned Opposition MP group favored switching 
Tuvalu's 27-year recognition of Taiwan to China.  End summary. 
 
Out with the old ... 
-------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) August 3 elections for a new Parliament in the tiny 
island nation of Tuvalu -- ten square miles and approximately 
10,000 people -- saw the eight-member government of Maatia 
Toafa largely voted out of office.  Only Toafa and Speaker of 
the House Otinielu Tausi retained their seats.  Four sitting 
ministers were defeated and a fifth chose not to run for 
health reasons.  By contrast, five of seven Opposition 
members were re-elected.  Eight new members of parliament 
emerged.  Seven of Tuvalu's eight main islands (a ninth has 
only 30 inhabitants and votes with a neighbor island) each 
elects two MPs, while sparsely populated Nukulaelae, the 
eighth, chooses one.  MPs are beholden to their local island 
communities for their political survival, and family, clan 
and island ties are decisive for election.  Most contacts and 
observers attributed the rejection of so many members of the 
previous government to their failure to deliver benefits to 
individual island constituencies since the last elections in 
July 2002. 
 
and in the New 
-------------- 
 
¶3. (C) Of the seven Opposition members of Parliament -- those 
MPs not allied to the governing clique -- five were 
re-elected.  On polling day, contacts told us there were 
groupings within the Opposition camp hoping to form 
government if the numbers went their way, but no one name 
emerged as a leading contender for prime minister  Indeed, 
many we spoke to said nearly every Opposition PM harbored 
ambitions to become the next PM.  Joining the returning 
Opposition MPs are eight new MPs, not all of whom will be 
total newcomer to government.  Among these are Tuvalu's 
former governor general, Sir Tomu Sione, veteran diplomat 
Taukelina Finikaso, the most recent commissioner of police, 
Willy Telavi, and former Auditor General Lotoala Metia.  One 
newcomer, former high school principal Namoliki Sualiki 
Neemia, rode to victory when three members of the same family 
on the island of Nukulaelae, including two-time PM and 
current Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Industries 
Bikenibeu Paeniu, split the votes of family and friends. 
 
A Fair Election with a Blemish 
------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (C) Despite the large turnover in parliament, the 
elections were by all accounts and the observations of 
Embassy's political officer peaceful, orderly and generally 
fair.  There were almost no spoiled ballots, no challenges by 
candidates observers, and all results were known within about 
10 hours of polls closing.  Only one issue slightly marred 
the otherwise proper running of the elections.  Some 30-40 
percent of Tuvalu's population resides on Funafuti, but those 
not originally from Funafuti typically register to vote for 
representatives from their home islands.  Registrations are 
all publicly posted and any adult of an affected island can 
challenge another voter's decision on where to register, 
based on provisions of the national election act.  According 
to government officials, in the case of Nukufetau island, 
half of whose population now lives on Funafuti, more than 100 
such challenges were lodged against off-island registrants. 
The untrained, new local magistrate serving as the 
responsible "revising officer" on Nukufetau rejected all of 
the challenges.  When asked about this, the national 
 
SUVA 00000309  002 OF 003 
 
 
supervisor of elections told a somewhat incredulous visiting 
New Zealand diplomat that he had let the magistrate's rulings 
go unchallenged, because to do otherwise would have drawn 
into question the authority of the election process.  In 
fact, the decision lies solely with the revising officer.  On 
election day on Nukufetau, former Prime Minister and sitting 
Minister for Works, Energy, Transport and Communications 
Saufatu Sopoanga was defeated for re-election by just 16 
votes.  According to Tuvalu's public defender, it is possible 
that Sopoanga may challenge in court the revising officer's 
rejection of the 100-plus registration challenges. 
 
The New Team - Maybe 
-------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) By Sunday, August 6, nearly all of the elected MPs had 
made their ways back to the capital from their home islands, 
trips that take 1-3 days.  At mid-morning of the next day, 12 
of the new and returning Opposition MPs gathered in an 
upstairs conference room of Funafuti's only hotel to begin 
the process of forming a new governing coalition.  All men -- 
the two women candidates having failed in their bids -- and 
well known to one another, they remained closeted for the 
remainder of Monday.  On the morning of Wednesday, August 9, 
a number of unofficial sources reported that 46-year-old 
Funafuti businessman and returning Opposition MP Kausea 
Natano has emerged as the consensus choice for PM. 
First-time MP and former Police Commissioner Willy Telavi is 
said to be the choice for speaker of the House.  Minister of 
finance is likely to be returning Opposition MP Apisai 
Ielemia; minister of natural resources returning Opposition 
MP Tavua Teii; minister of works and communications newcomer 
MP Namoliki Sualiki Neemia; minister of home affairs 
returning leader of the Opposition Elisala Pita; and minister 
of health and education Dr. Falesa Pitoi, a dentist. 
Returning Opposition MP Kamuta Latasi and newcomer Lotoala 
Metia, of Funafuti and Nukufetau island respectively, will 
function as backbenchers.  There is talk about the new 
government being sworn in on August 10 or 11.  The final 
line-up could easily change again, and the swearing-in could 
be postponed.  Ruling coalitions have proven difficult to 
hold together in the past. 
 
¶6. (C) A surprising tidbit that emerged from these early 
discussions, reported to us by the well-informed protocol 
officer of the Foreign Ministry, was word that four of those 
involved in the talks to form a new government favor 
switching Tuvalu's "allegiance" from Taiwan to China.  Tuvalu 
has recognized Taiwan since shortly after independence in 
1978, something that Taipei rewards with an annual budgetary 
grant of 3.5 million U.S. dollars, along with other 
assistance. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶7. (C) Tuvalu proves the adage that all politics is local. 
Failure to deliver benefits such as docks, improved roads, 
better schools, scholarships for promising local students, 
and a hundred other small favors to ones home island has 
apparently cost an overly confident government victory at the 
polls.  Contacts also pointed to a widely held belief that 
the now-defeated group under PM Toafa had lived just a little 
too well off in far Funafuti.  A recent quiet increase in 
travel benefits for government ministers did not go 
unnoticed.  Tuvalu's cash economy remains moribund, and, in 
the eyes of those outside Funafuti, too little of the "manna" 
dropping from foreign aid donors, the country's modest but 
successful trust fund, fishing licenses, etc. makes its way 
to the outer islands.  Government ministers also waited far 
too late to hit the hustings, according to contacts, and they 
arrived on their islands to find their opponents had been 
there already, spreading their own versions of what the 
government had been up to.  With only a single government 
radio station, now corporatized and doing its best to be 
objective, isolated local voters had little to go on in 
making their decisions.  What is clear is that the governing 
MPs failed to win over and convince voters to return them for 
another four years.  Past elections in Tuvalu, which only 
became self-governing in 1978, have tended to see big 
turnovers, too.  The newcomers will start their 
administration without a known political platform.  It is 
worth noting that they have not included in their number some 
of the more promising of this term's MPs, such as former 
ambassador to Fiji and multi-lateral diplomat Taukelina 
 
SUVA 00000309  003 OF 003 
 
 
Finikaso, nor any representative from the island of Nui.  The 
latter may yet have to be addressed, since a balance among 
the islands is critical.  Other than former Police 
Commissioner Willy Telavi, the members of the new government 
are not well known to the embassy or others outside Tuvalu we 
have spoken with.  End Comment. 
 
Mann 
 
 
MANN