User:Mattnewest/The parliamentary elections in Nauru 2010

The parliamentary elections in Nauru. The parliamentary elections in Nauru took place on April 24, 2010. Scheduled a year earlier than the constitutional deadline, they ended with the re-election of all previous deputies. The equal distribution of seats between the two opposing blocs led to a political crisis lasting several weeks, during which the appointed parliament was unable to elect a new head of state. For this reason, Marcus Stephen dissolved Parliament on June 11, 2010, and called for repeated parliamentary elections on June 19, 2010.

The Parliament of Nauru consists of 18 deputies elected for three-year terms. After each election, the parliament elects a new head of state. The previous parliamentary elections were held in April 2008. They resulted in 18 non-partisan MPs sitting in the chamber, as there are no formal political parties on the island and politics is based on ad hoc alliances and informal coalitions. Parliament elected incumbent President Marcus Stephen as head of state.

On March 16, 2010, President Stephen dissolved parliament, which meant that early elections had to be held. On March 22, the chairman of the parliament ordered their organization on April 24, 2010. The

86 candidates, including 8 women, competed for 18 seats[4].reason for the president's decision was the existing political conflict and the distribution of votes in the parliament, which made it difficult to govern the country. The chamber consisted of 9 supporters of the presidential administration and 9 of its opponents. Parliament passed several votes of no confidence in Stephen's government. The last one was

rejected by the chamber in March 2010

During the elections, a preferential voting system was used, in which the electorate votes for candidates in their constituencies in order of preference. The first vote in this system counts as one whole (1), the second as half (0.50) of a vote, the third as one-third (0.33), etc.

The figures given here are the sum of the scores obtained by each candidate. Therefore, the total value of votes cast in each constituency is the number of whole votes, half votes, thirds, quarters, etc. – according to the number of candidates in a given constituency.

The specificity of the Borda method (a kind of preferential voting system) that was used in Nauru is that the voter must fill in all the fields - otherwise the vote is invalid[5][6].

Citizens voted in seven two-member constituencies and one four-member constituency[5].

Results and situation after the elections

The elections of April 2010 did not change the situation on the political scene, as they resulted in the mandate of all deputies previously sitting in the parliament. At its first sitting on 27 April 2010, Parliament failed to elect its president[7].

Also on 29 April, no election was made, which made it impossible to elect a new head of state[3].

The election results and the equal distribution of seats led to a political crisis that lasted several weeks. It was not until the sixth session on May 13, 2010 that the parliament elected Godfrey Thoma for the position of chairman of the chamber[8].