At stake in this election:

• 18 seats in the Parliament

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Marcus STEPHEN
• Head of Government: President Marcus STEPHEN
• Assembly: Nauru has a unicameral Parliament with 18 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by parliament to serve a 3-year term.
• In the Parliament 18 members are elected through a Borda Count system to serve 3-year terms.***

*** Elections in Nauru are formally non-partisan. Nauru uses a modified Borda Count system called the Dowdall system. Key differences from the theoretical Borda system are that (1) this is applied in multimember constituencies and (2) the values assigned to a voter's preferences are fractions of a full point. (e.g. A voter's first preference carries a value of 1, her third preference a value of 1/3, and so on.) As with a single-winner Borda system, the N candidates with the highest vote totals win N seats in each district. There are seven two-seat districts and one four-seat district. A voter must use all her rankings for her ballot to be valid.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Independent(s): Non-partisan followers of Marcus Stephen
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 9
  • Seats won in last election: 9
• Independent(s): Non-partisan opponents of Marcus Stephen
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 8
  • Seats won in last election: 9
• Independent(s): Independent
  • Leader: Milton DUBE
  • Seats won in this election: 1
  • Seats won in last election: 0

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 10,025 (July 2010 est.)
• Registered Voters: 5,238 (April 2008 )

Gender Data:

·         Is Nauru a signatory to CEDAW: No

·         Has Nauru ratified CEDAW: Yes, accession (23 June 2011)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 0

·         Human Development Index Position: N/A

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Nauru a signatory to CRPD: No

·         Has Nauru ratified CRPD: Yes (27 June 2012)

·         Population with a disability: 1,503 (est.)