About Parliament
History and Role
The Parliament of Nauru was established under the Constitution at independence, on 31 January 1968. The Parliament of Nauru is created by Article 26 of the Constitution, and vested with legislative power by Article 27. Parliament has a three year term, unless it is dissolved sooner. Since independence, there have been 18 Parliaments in Nauru.
The primary functions of Parliament are to make laws, to represent the people, and to provide scrutiny and oversight of government.
The Parliament of Nauru can be described as a Westminster-style Parliament, in the sense that Nauru has an essentially parliamentary-style government, where government is formed by a majority of members of Parliament and government sits in Parliament. However, the Parliament of Nauru differs in some important respects from the British Parliament at Westminster. Some of the most significant differences are: that the powers of the Parliament of Nauru are expressly limited by a written Constitution, and that many of the conventions or customary practices that apply in the British Parliament at Westminster, particularly those that are intertwined with the two party political system, do not apply in Nauru.
One of the unique features of Nauru’s political and parliamentary system is that the President is both head of government and head of state. He is chosen by Parliament from amongst members of Parliament.
Like other systems of parliamentary government, Nauru has a loose separation of powers: the state has three institutional branches or arms – the Executive (President and Cabinet), the Legislature (Parliament) and the Judicature (Supreme Court).
Composition
The Parliament of Nauru is unicameral (meaning it comprises only one house) and has eighteen 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, but so far Parliament has not done so.
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 seven two-member constituencies and one 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 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.
Activities
The Parliament of Nauru does not have a regular schedule of sittings, however Parliament generally sits for at least one day in every month, and usually more frequently. Parliament sittings typically include questions without notice, ministerial statements and tabling of papers, motions and debates. As soon as sittings of Parliament are announced by government, the dates will appear on the home page of this website under ‘News and Events’. You can click on the announcement of sitting dates to get a copy of the notice paper, which sets out what business is on the agenda for the next sitting.
In addition to law making and other business that takes place during Parliament sittings, much of the work of members of Parliament takes place in Parliamentary Committees. Committees that are currently active include the Constitutional Review Committee, the House Committee and the new Select Committee on Land Issues. You can read more about the work of committees and download committee documents from the Committees page.
Parliament is also working on a number of major projects, which you can read about on the Projects page.
Members of Parliament are involved in inter-parliamentary activities, and often attend regional or international workshops and conferences on issues relevant to their parliamentary work.
Access to Parliament
When Parliament is sitting, the proceedings of Parliament are broadcast live on radio and television in Nauru. Parliament also has a public gallery, where members of the public can sit and watch Parliament.
In the first half of 2009, Parliament completed a project to refurbish the Parliament building, in order to provide office space for every member of Parliament. The provision of dedicated office space means that it is easier for voters to arrange meetings with their member of Parliament.
For more information on how you can get involved in the work of Parliament, visit the Parliament and the People page. To access parliamentary documents or other information, see Committees, Bills/Acts, Projects or contact us.
Administration
Parliament is administered by the Speaker and the Clerk.
The Speaker of Parliament is elected by Parliament from among the members of Parliament. The Speaker is the presiding officer of Parliament, and is responsible not only for presiding over the sittings of Parliament but also for convening sittings of Parliament and dissolving Parliament on the advice of the President, issuing writs for elections, certifying Acts of Parliament, and generally for managing and controlling Parliament and its precincts including all staff in the service of Parliament.
The Clerk is the top permanent officer of Parliament. He is neither a member of Parliament nor a member of the public service. The office of Clerk is created under Article 33 of the Constitution. The Clerk is appointed and removed by the Speaker of Parliament. The Clerk is responsible for arranging the business of and keeping the records of the proceedings of Parliament, and for the day to day administration of Parliament and the work of the Secretariat. The present Clerk, Frederick Cain, has held office since 1977and is the longest serving Clerks in the region.
You can find more detail about the structure and work of the Parliament Secretariat.