Christopher Loeak

Christopher Loeak

Christopher Loeak (born November 11, 1952 on the Ailinglapalap Atoll ) was President of the Marshall Islands from 2012 to 2016 .

Life

Christopher Loeak first attended Marshall Island High School in the capital Majuro and then studied in the United States at the private Hawaii Pacific College and law at the private Gonzaga University . Loeak speaks the Marshallese language and English.

Loeak is a longstanding member of the Nitijeḷā , the parliament of the Marshall Islands. He was first elected in 1985 to represent the Ailinglaplap Atoll. He was Minister of Justice in President Amata Kabua's cabinet from 1988 to 1992. He was then Minister of Social Affairs until Kabua's death in 1996. Under his successor Kunio Lemari , he was Minister of Education for two years, initially under the next president, Imata Kabua , who has been in office since 1997 . In 1998 Loeak was appointed Minister for the Ralik chain , an island chain in the west of the country. In addition to this office, which he held for one year, he was Deputy President since 1999.

Loeak was a member of numerous committees in parliament. He also took part in negotiations with the US over the use of a test site for missiles on the islands. In the 2007 elections he was re-elected to represent Ailinglaplap in parliament, and in 2008 Litokwa Tomeing brought him back to the cabinet as his deputy.

On January 3, 2012, a few weeks after the parliamentary elections on November 21, 2011, the independent Christopher Loeak was elected by the MPs as the sixth President of the Marshall Islands. His only opponent was the previous president Jurelang Zedkaia , against whom he was able to prevail with 21 to 11 votes. On January 4, 2016, Parliament elected Casten Nemra to succeed Loeaks.

Loeak is married and has three children.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Giff Johnson: Nitijela power struggle. (No longer available online.) In: The Marshall Islands Journal. January 14, 2016, archived from the original on January 23, 2016 ; accessed on January 23, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.