Now that he has lost, it is quite possible that at least some Micronesian countries will do just that. If Zackios had won, no country would have left the Forum. Whatever the reasons, and regardless of who was the better candidate, the decision looks like the wrong one for the Forum. We know some PIF countries resented the threat of the Micronesian countries to leave if their candidate wasn’t successful, and some might have thought that, as the only former PM running, Puna was the most experienced candidate for the job. So he clearly had some pretty good assurances of support as well. Henry Puna, the successful candidate, was the Cook Islands prime minister, and had resigned from that post to compete for the SG’s job. We know that the five Micronesian states of FSM, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau and RMI were all committed to Zackios. Puna again won, with nine votes to Zackios’ eight. The final vote was not held till close to midnight. This time, we are told, Cook Islands’ Henry Puna won with seven votes second place went to the Micronesian countries’ candidate Gerald Zackios with six Solomon Islands’ Jimmie Rodgers garnered three and Tonga’s Amelia Kinahoi-Siamomua (the sole female candidate) only one.įirst Tonga withdrew its candidate, and then Solomon Islands. Whether this was related to the USP developments on the same night (discussed below) remains a matter for speculation.Īfter that, the first vote was held. According to inside sources, the first to withdraw its candidate was Fiji, which generally does not field a candidate due to the Forum Secretariat being located in its capital, Suva. The selection from the five candidates (backgrounded here) proceeded by elimination.ĭiscussions on the leadership began in the afternoon.
The long-delayed, much-anticipated, specially-convened virtual leaders’ meeting to choose the successor to two-term PIF SG Meg Taylor defied all prior talk of Pacific leaders being unable to make decisions except in person and by consensus. It saw the unfolding of two, apparently unconnected, dramatic events – a tight election battle for the position of Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General and the deportation of the Vice Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific – both of which will cause division and discord, and significantly weaken both institutions involved. It is hard to imagine a bleaker day for Pacific regionalism than Wednesday February 3, 2021.
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