Naboua Ratieta Ieremia Tabai The Gilbert Islands held its first national election to choose a chief minister on 17 March 1978.

Parliament voted to determine which four candidates would be on the ballot, choosing Taomati Iuta, Babera Kirata, Ieremia Tabai, and Roniti Teiwaki.

The previous chief minister, Naboua Ratieta, was unpopular in the new parliament, so its members coordinated to assure that he was not selected for the ballot.

Following Tabai's victory, he led the country's independence process and the position of chief minister was renamed President of Kiribati.

Among its suggestions was that the chief minister be chosen through a popular vote,[1] which was endorsed by the House of Assembly that year.

The new parliament met on 20 February 1978, and it voted unanimously to implement popular elections for the chief minister as recommended by the constitutional convention.

[5] Candidates were to be chosen from the members of parliament,[6] and five entered themselves into consideration: Taomati Iuta, Babera Kirata, Naboua Ratieta, Ieremia Tabai, and Roniti Teiwaki.

[12] An alliance formed with the goal of keeping Ratieta off of the ballot, with 26 members of parliament meeting twice in Tarawa to coordinate.

[10] The four candidates were exceptionally young relative to the country's usual expectation for a respected elder that was traditionally associated with leadership.

Iuta and Kirata campaigned to introduce themselves to the voters, while Tabai and Teiwaki did not, as they were already well-known figures in I-Kiribati politics.

After becoming chief minister, Tabai formed his government exclusively with members of the alliance that had forced Ratieta off the ballot.

[19] The Gilbert Islands became an independent nation on 12 July 1979, and Tabai's title switched from chief minister to the new equivalent new role, President of Kiribati.

[21] To prevent another instance of the parliamentary majority choosing all four candidates, the selection process was changed to preferential voting in the 1982 election.

[23] One of his opponents, Harry Tong, filed two legal challenges, but the court found that he lacked standing in both cases.