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Pacific News Minute: Palau's President Ekes Out Victory For 4th Term

CTA ACP-EU / Flickr
CTA ACP-EU / Flickr

When we last checked on the presidential election in Palau, incumbent Tommy Remengesau, Jr. was ahead by 78 votes, with about three thousand Mail-in ballots yet to be counted. We have an update from Neal Conan, in the Pacific News Minute.

The hard fought campaign caused more than a little awkwardness at the President's dinner table... Senator Surangel Whipps Jr., his rival, is married to his sister. Both candidates insisted the contest was not personal. But afterwards, freshly re-elected President Remengesau told Radio New Zealand that the family will have to go through a healing journey.

Employment was one of the big issues. The unemployment rate in Palau is 11%, low by South Pacific standards, but Senator Whipps emphasized the number of young people who leave for the United States in search of opportunity. President Remengesau admitted that many who leave for education in the U.S. decide to stay there, and promised to raise the minimum wage and provide housing to make Palau more attractive.

The right to travel, live and work in the U.S. comes with Palau's Compact of Free Association which comes up for re-negotiation in 2024. He promises to work toward a sustainable future that balances development with what he called our number one asset..."our blue asset...the ocean and the environment."

In the end, Remengesau won re-election by fewer than 300 votes.  This will be his fourth term in office, interrupted by a break in the middle. "It's a bittersweet victory in a way," he told Radio New Zealand, "because this is not supposed to happen in Palauan culture and Society."

"At the end of the day, " Senator Whipps said, "we're still family, my wife is still his sister and will never stop loving him and that's the way it should be."

Over 36 years with National Public Radio, Neal Conan worked as a correspondent based in New York, Washington, and London; covered wars in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Sarajevo; and a presidential impeachment. He served, at various times, as editor, producer, and executive producer of All Things Considered and may be best known as the long-time host of Talk of the Nation. Now a macadamia nut farmer on Hawaiʻi Island, his "Pacific News Minute" can be heard on HPR Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
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