Waqa dumped by Nauru voters
Results come amid continuing humanitarian crisis for almost 300 refugees still on the island
Nauru’s president, Baron Waqa, has reportedly lost his seat in Parliament.
Preliminary election results from his electorate of Boe show that Mr Waqa, who has been president since 2013, lost out to Asterio Appi and Martin Hunt.
The election results come amid a continuing humanitarian crisis for almost 300 refugees remaining on Nauru, with the Nauruan government accused of blocking some medical care to refugees and the Australian government attempting to repeal medevac laws.
On Friday a 36-year-old Pakistani refugee set himself alight.
Mr Waqa only narrowly beat the former cabinet minister and serving opposition member Mathew Batsiua for third place.
The parliamentary election was held on Saturday.
Seven thousand people voted to make up the 19-member Parliament.
Results from six of the eight electorates were published yesterday. Médecins Sans Frontières, which was kicked off Nauru last year for providing mental health services to refugees and has accused the island’s government of breaching medical ethics, will give evidence to an Australian Senate inquiry on the Morrison government’s legislation to appeal the medevac laws. Medevac laws allow for doctors to arrange for the urgent medical transfer of a refugee from Nauru or Manus Island to Australia. In February the Nauru government passed laws that prevented residents of Nauru from being granted a medical transfer to Australia if the referral was based on an online consultation, which is common in the treatment of refugees.
Batsiua was suspended from parliament in 2014 after publicly criticising the Waqa government and is a member of the Nauru 19, a group of protesters facing prosecution over a protest against the removal of Batsiua and two others fromParliament.
The former president Ludwig Scotty, re-elected in May in a byelection, also lost his seat in the Anabar electorate, along with a fellow sitting MP, Riddell Akua. Elected in their place were Maverick Eoe and Pyon Deiye.
According to the official Republic of Nauru Twitter account, the home affairs minister, Charmaine Scotty, was re-elected in Yaren alongside Isabella Dageago. Khyde Menke, Tawaki Kam and Lionel Aingimea were elected in Menang while Milton Dube was reelected in Aiwo, alongside Rennier Gadabu.
The opposition MP Marcus Stephen was re-elected in Anetan, as was newcomer Timothy Ika. The former justice minister Roland Kun is out in Buada, with the government MP Shadlog Bernicke retaining his seat alongside Bingham Agir.