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Turnout | 73.7% ( 4.6pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Map of margin of victory by constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Subdivisions |
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Presidential elections were held in Kiribati on 3 July 1991. Vice-President Teatao Teannaki of the National Progressive Party (NPP) was elected with 46% of the vote, defeating his main opponent Roniti Teiwaki of Te Waaki ae Boou, who received 42% of the vote.
Incumbent president Ieremia Tabai was term limited, making this the first presidential election in Kiribati in which he was not a candidate. The House of Assembly chose four of its members to stand for the presidency, and collaboration between Tabai's NPP and the unaffiliated Te Waaki ae Boou faction gave the two groups full control of the ballot. In addition to their respective candidates, they nominated two placeholder candidates to fill the ballot and block access to other factions: Boanareke Boanareke for the NPP and Beniamina Tinga for Te Waaki ae Boou. Taomati Iuta, Babera Kirata, Teburoro Tito, and Tewareka Tentoa, all of whom had previously run, were considered potential candidates for their respective factions but failed to make it onto the ballot.
The campaign issues were primarily economic, diverging from the polarising scandals of previous presidential elections. The nation's Catholic–Protestant divide had a lessened effect, as both of the main candidates were Catholic. Teannaki, campaigning on the continuation of Tabai's policies, benefited from the NPP's institutional strength relative to the loosely organised Te Waaki Ae Boou faction. Teiwaki promised voters that he would shift away from Tabai's policy of frugality in favour of greater salaries and subsidies.