David Adeang

That post had been given to the President since Nauru gained independence in 1968.

David Ranibok Waiau Adeang (born 24 November 1969) is a Nauruan politician, currently serving as President of Nauru.

Adeang is the former Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru, and Nauru's Minister of Finance and Justice, as well as the Minister Assisting the President of Nauru.

David Adeang's father is Kennan Adeang, who served three times as President of Nauru.

David Adeang began his political career as a lawyer.

After all Ubenide seats had been vacated on 6 November 2001, Adeang won a seat in the following by-election, ousting Joseph Hiram while the other three previous MPs regained their seats.

In the parliamentary elections of May 2003, amidst political and economic turmoil, the Naoero Amo won 3 of the 18 seats, and Adeang was one of the elected members.

The Naoero Amo entered a coalition with Ludwig Scotty and his supporters.

Scotty became president and Adeang became minister of finance in May 2003.

He was only finance minister and Minister Assisting the President of Nauru for three months however, as in August 2003 Scotty's government fell, and Kinza Clodumar became finance minister.

In April 2004, Adeang was charged with sedition along with Kieren Keke and Fabian Ribauw after a protest at Nauru's airport.

He was the Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru from May 2004 to June 2004.

In June 2004 Clodumar and the Naoero Amo united to re-elect Scotty as president.

Clodumar remained finance minister, while Adeang became Minister of Foreign Affairs and Justice.

Also, the charges against Adeang and the others were dropped.

His appointment as foreign minister is interesting because he was the first foreign minister not to be the President of Nauru.

Adeang was easily re-elected to Parliament from the Ubenide constituency in the October 2004 elections.

Later that month, he left the position of justice minister, became finance minister, and retained the position of foreign minister.

He was a founding member of the Nauru First party, at one time the only political party on the island.

Adeang was easily reelected in the August 2007 parliamentary election.

He received the most votes in the Ubenide constituency, which elects 4 seats.

In September 2007, Adeang, as Foreign Minister, made a number of public statements deemed in the United States to be controversial.

He extolled Cuba and criticized US foreign policy, during a visit to the Caribbean island.

The US Department of State, referring to events investigated in 2007, reported criticism of Adeang in its Human Rights Report, issued for 2008.

This criticism was included in the State Department's report, despite the fact that police, having undertaken an investigation of allegations of wrongdoing, made no attempt to prosecute Adeang.

Allegations of misconduct on the part of Adeang and Scotty's unwillingness to act against Adeang led to the resignation of several members of the government—Kieren Keke, Frederick Pitcher, and Roland Kun—and an unsuccessful motion of no-confidence against Scotty's government on 13 November 2007.

Although a majority of those voting supported the motion (eight in favor, seven opposed), it fell short of the necessary nine votes.

However, another vote on 19 December was successful in ousting Scotty, and Marcus Stephen was elected president; Stephen named Kieren Keke to replace Adeang as Foreign Minister.

In an unusual alliance, in March 2008 Adeang and former President Rene Harris moved to attempt a motion of no confidence in President Marcus Stephen, which was, however, thwarted by the resignation of the Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru.

It was noted that Adeang had been a strong critic of Harris's record in government.

Subsequently, in March 2008, Adeang was appointed Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru, succeeding Riddell Akua.

He entered office on 20 March 2008.

On 22 March, Adeang called a Parliamentary session, allegedly without informing government ministers, who therefore did not attend.

Opposition MPs, Adeang included, constituted a majority of legislators present, and passed a ruling outlawing dual citizenship for Members of Parliament.

The ruling, if applied, would affect senior Cabinet ministers Kieren Keke and Frederick Pitcher.

Were they compelled to resign from Parliament, the Opposition would control a majority of seats in Parliament.

The government rejected the legitimacy of the ruling, stating that it was unconstitutional because of the lack of parliamentary quorum.

President Marcus Stephen accused Adeang and the Opposition of passing the ruling "after dark on Easter Saturday", "under candlelight".

For his part, Adeang asserted that 22 March session of Parliament was valid.

On 28 March, Adeang, as Speaker, ordered Keke and Pitcher to vacate their seats in Parliament.