by Tusi Tala, Staff Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Polls will open at 7 AM local time on Tuesday for the elections in Palau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Incumbent President Surangel Whipps Jr. is seeking re-election against former four-term President Tommy Remengesau Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of July 15, 2024, the Palau Election Commission reported that there are 16,627 registered voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the previous general election in 2020, 10,204 votes were cast from a total of 16,754 registered voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key issues during the campaigns included the rising cost of living and recent tax reforms, particularly the value-added tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an editorial published in September, Palau’s national newspaper, Island Times, noted that “on November 5, two prominent political figures\u2014who are also brothers-in-law\u2014will compete against each other for the second time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Political analysts expect the election results may remain unclear for a week, as absentee ballots will play a crucial role in this closely contested race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The candidates\u2014one a charismatic leader and the other a well-known and wealthy businessman\u2014are making strong appeals to voters both locally and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The editorial highlighted that both candidates have adopted similar campaign approaches, prioritizing personal interactions over large public gatherings or extensive media coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This election coincides with the United States election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whipps Jr. mentioned in August that regardless of the US election outcome, “the relationship between Palau and the United States will stay strong.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added, “The difference now compared to 2010 is the understanding that we are partners who need to collaborate; they can’t just overlook us. The political climate has changed significantly since then.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Tusi Tala, Staff Writer Polls will open at 7 AM local time on Tuesday for the elections in Palau. Incumbent President Surangel Whipps Jr. is seeking re-election against former four-term President Tommy Remengesau Jr. As of July 15, 2024, the Palau Election Commission reported that there are 16,627 registered voters. In the previous general…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}