Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Vote counting in Marshall Islands shows three incumbents may retain seats

Posted at 22:53 on 21 November, 2011 UTC

In the Marshall Islands, early indications of vote counting show three incumbents in Majuro have a good chance of retaining their seats.

Thirty six thousand voters went to the polls on Monday for their national election, held every four years.

Our correspondent, Giff Johnson, says the counting of votes by hand began last night.

“Indications are from a very preliminary Majuro count, is that the three incumbents, led by President Jurelang Zedkaia will easily return to office. And we’ll very likely will see former senator and current UN ambassador for the Marshall Islands Phillip Muller returning to the parliament and possibly the Telecom general manager, Tony Muller, both of whom are showing very strong results in the preliminary count.”

Giff Johnson says final results won’t be known until all off shore postal votes, due in by the 5th of December, are counted.