Who comprises Parliament?
The Parliament of Nauru is
unicameral (meaning it comprises only 1house) and has 19
members.
The composition of Parliament is
set out in Article 28 and Schedule 2 of the Constitution. Parliament
has the power to increase but not reduce the number of members in
Parliament, and may also by legislation change the constituencies
and the number of members for each constituency which are set out
in Schedule 2. The Electoral
Act has been amended to add an additional member for
Meneng, which brought the total number of members of Parliament to
19 from the general election in June 2013.
The constituencies are as follows:
|
Constituency
|
District or Districts of Nauru comprised in constituency
|
Number of members to be returned by constituency
|
|
Aiwo
|
Aiwo
|
2
|
|
Anabar
|
Anabar, Anibare, Ijuw
|
2
|
|
Anetan
|
Anetan, Ewa
|
2
|
|
Boe
|
Boe
|
2
|
|
Buada
|
Buada
|
2
|
|
Meneng
|
Meneng
|
3
|
|
Ubenide
|
Baiti, Denigomodu, Nibok Uaboe
|
4
|
|
Yaren
|
Yaren
|
2
|
Nauru does not have a political
party system, so all members of Parliament are effectively
independent members. Whilst it is usual for members to form groups,
the absence of party discipline means that such groups have often
been fluid and subject to change during the term of a Parliament.
You can find information about the current members of Parliament on
the Members'
page.
Article 29 of the Constitution
provides that the Parliament shall be elected by citizens over 20
years of age, but leaves the details of the electoral system to
Parliament. The electoral system that was adopted in 1971, the
Borda count, known locally as the 'Dowdall system', involves an
unusual form of preferential voting. There are 6 two-member
constituencies, 1 three-member constituency and 1
four-member constituency. Voting is compulsory and voters must
indicate a preference for all candidates on their ballot paper.
Rather than a process of successive elimination of candidates with
the lowest number of votes, each preference is allocated a value
corresponding to its fraction of a vote. For example, a first
preference is 1, a 6th preference is one sixth of a whole vote,
0.16 (so preferences are valued respectively as 1, 0.5, 0.33, 0.25,
0.2, 0.16 etc). All values are tallied and the two
candidates (or in Meneng, the three candidates, or in Ubenide, the
four candidates) with the highest scores are elected. As the Constitution does not
prescribe an electoral system, the current system can be changed by
Parliament without the need to amend the Constitution.