# 1985 General Election (12 September 1985)

URL: https://allhistories.com/tuvalu/timeline/1985-1985-general-election
Location: Funafuti, Tuvalu
Themes: main-event

Tuvalu held its second general election after independence on 12 September 1985. Nine incumbents were re-elected, including the prime minister and the deputy prime minister. The election again involved independent candidates, as political parties do not operate in the country's non-partisan system, and each of the islands returned members in the usual way. The Parliament elected after the poll re-elected Tomasi Puapua as prime minister on 21 September 1985, and he formed a five-member cabinet again. The result gave the country a rare period of stability in its early years, with a single prime minister in office from 1981 until 1989, before the series of changes of government that followed in the 1990s. The election is a reference point for continuity in the early state. Puapua served until October 1989, the longest term of any prime minister of the early state, and later became governor-general. Stable government helped the young country negotiate the Trust Fund and other international arrangements. At this point in the timeline (1985), Elizabeth II (1 October 1978 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of Tuvalu, head of state, represented in the islands by the Governor-General; Fiatau Penitala Teo (1 October 1978 – 1 March 1986) was Governor-General, the monarch's representative in Tuvalu; Prime Minister Tomasi Puapua (8 September 1981 – 16 October 1989) led the government.

## Why it matters
The 1985 vote confirmed the first period of stable parliamentary government in independent Tuvalu, covering the creation of the Trust Fund in 1987.

Ruler at the Time: [Elizabeth II](https://allhistories.com/tuvalu/rulers/elizabeth-ii-21)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Elections in Tuvalu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Tuvalu)
- [Wikipedia — Tomasi Puapua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomasi_Puapua)