This site is not updated. Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 30, 1997. Its government is a modified parliamentary system consisting of a single-chamber legislative assembly of 47 members. Executive authority lies with the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. The Prime Minister, elected by a majority vote of Parliament, selects his own Cabinet.
Political legitimacy rests on direct election by secret ballot.
There have been four general elections since independence in 1978, most recently in June 1993. A police force of about 500 men under civilian control is responsible for law enforcement. There were occasional reports of police abuse of human rights. About 85 percent of the population engages to some extent in subsistence farming, obtaining food by gardening and fishing, and has little involvement in the cash economy. Although exports, particularly of unprocessed logs, have boomed, the number of wage earners has remained unchanged for the past several years, despite high population growth.