At stake in this election:

• 19 seats in the Parliament

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Sprent Jared DABWIDO
• Head of Government: President Sprent Jared DABWIDO
• Assembly: Nauru has a unicameral Parliament with 19 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by parliament to serve a 3-year term.
• In the Parliament 19 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 six two-seat districts, one-three seat district, and one four-seat district. A voter must use all her rankings for his/her ballot to be valid.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Independent(s): Independents*
  Leader: N/A
  Seats won in last election: 18

* Political parties have been legalized in Nauru. However, elections occur on the basis of personal politics, meaning that all members of Parliament are effectively independent. 68 candidates in total will run for the 19 seats.

Last Parliamentary election:

• The election law was changed in 2012 to add an additional seat to Parliament in an effort to prevent Parliamentary deadlocks.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 9,434 (July 2012 est.)
• Registered Voters: 5,704 (June 2010)

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.)