The President is elected for a 4-year term and exercises executive authority. No less than three and no more than four presidential candidates are nominated by the elected Legislative Assembly from among its members. Under the Constitution, the President is limited to three terms. In free and fair elections, voters reelected President Teburoro Tito to a second term in November 1998, with 52.3 percent of the votes. Most of President Tito's cabinet ministers have served in the previous cabinet.
Women are underrepresented in politics and government.
Two women hold permanent secretary positions, and there is 1 in the 42-member Parliament. There are no restrictions on the formation of local nongovernmental organizations that concern themselves with human rights, but none have been formed. There have been no reported allegations of human rights violations by the Government and no known requests for investigations. The Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, creed, national origin, or sex, and the Government generally observed this prohibition in practice. Society is fundamentally egalitarian and has no privileged class.