General Elections, March 2015

Tropical cyclone, March 2015 

In March 2015, all the islands of Tuvalu except the capital island of Funafuti were badly hit by Tropical Cyclone Pam (RNZ 2015a). As a result, approximately 4,630 people out of a total population of 11,206 were directly in need of food assistance and safe drinking water. In addition, the damage or destruction of around 250 homes led to the displacement of over 500 people. An estimated 10.5km of road was damaged, as well as multiple boat ramps and telecommunication hubs on all the islands ( Tuvalu 2015). There were also issues with access to power and internet access across affected islands, posing a challenge to information gathering and relief efforts (UN OCHA 2015). 

Impact on the electoral process 

Tuvalu was scheduled to hold its general elections on 19 March 2015. However, these elections were delayed twice due to Cyclone Pam, ultimately taking place on 31 March (UNDP/IFES 2025). The Governor General declared a State of Emergency on 13 March which lasted until three days before election day. Prime Minister Sopoaga explained this choice, saying that the government’s priority was to attend to cyclone-affected citizens before embarking on elections (RNZ 2015a). 

Despite the chaos caused by the cyclone in weeks prior, elections on 31 March proceeded without issue or significant delays (Taafaki 2015). Around one third of the country’s population lives on the capital island of Funafuti (Macdonald 2025) which being unaffected as mentioned, perhaps contributed to the smooth running of the polls. In addition, two electoral districts did not hold elections as their seats were uncontested (Taafaki 2015). Difficulties in inter-island communication and travel did not pose a significant challenge by election day, as the counting of votes (RNZ 2015b) and announcement of results over Radio Tuvalu proceeded as usual. Furthermore, the cyclone apparently did not impact campaigning, as at the time allegiance to candidates in Tuvalu was based more on personal familiarity and geography, in the absence of a political party system (Taafaki 2015) (BBC 2014). 

It is unclear what the voter turnout was in the 2015 general elections as there is no official statistic for registered voters. However, 7,819 votes were cast in total (International IDEA n.d.). Each voter could cast votes for multiple candidates, so this number exceeds the total voting age population of 7,064 (US Census Bureau n.d.).