The incumbent president, Ieremia Tabai, who had been elected while the nation was under colonial rule, won re-election with 48.7% of the vote.

He placed ahead of his vice-president Teatao Teannaki, opposition leader Naboua Ratieta, and pro-labour member of parliament Etera Teangana.

Ieremia Tabai was elected chief minister of the Gilbert Islands in 1978,[1] and he became the president of Kiribati upon the nation's independence the following year.

[2] South Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati, had been subject to major strikes since 1974 that had a serious effect on the area's ability to function.

[5] A pro-labour political movement developed over the following years, organising in South Tarawa and getting its members into the Betio Town Council.

They tried to gain influence beyond South Tarawa, but they were unpopular elsewhere in Kiribati for the shipping and communication delays that the strikers had caused.

[6] The new parliament voted to determine who would appear on the presidential ballot, choosing Naboua Ratieta, Ieremia Tabai, Etera Teangana, and Teatao Teannaki.

[11] Prior to the election, Tabai's government implemented a primary health care system and endorsed subsistence farming as a means for the outer islands to support themselves.

[16] Teangana was newly elected as the member of parliament for South Tarawa, gaining support as a pro-labour candidate.

[6] The government's handling of independence negotiations and the post-independence economy brought short-term stability to the nation, though it was blamed for a drop in the price of copra, which decreased from 17 cents per pound to only 10.

[5] A religious divide opened during the campaign, and many Catholics believed that the government had been showing favouritism towards the Kiribati Protestant Church.