| Protect the Maneaba | |
| Ideology: | Christian democracy |
| Position: | Right wing |
| Religion: | Christianity |
| Country: | Kiribati |
Protect the Maneaba (Gilbertese: Maneaban te Mauri||Protect the [[Maneaba|meeting house]], MTM), initially known as the Christian Democratic Party, was a political party in Kiribati.
The party was established as the Christian Democratic Party in 1985 by members of the House of Assembly opposed to president Ieremia Tabai.[1] By 1994 it had been renamed Protect the Maneaba, and was a loose grouping of MPs led by Roniti Teiwaki. In the 1994 parliamentary elections it won 13 of the 39 seats.[2] In the subsequent presidential elections two months later, MTM's Teburoro Tito was elected president. In the 1998 parliamentary elections the party won 14 seats,[3] with Tito re-elected president two months later. By the late 1990s the party had two dominant factions, a Christian-Democratic faction led by Tito and a liberal faction led by Tewareka Tentoa.[1]
The party was reduced to only seven seats in the 2002 parliamentary elections,[4] but Tito was re-elected as president in February 2003. However, the government losing a vote on the supplementary budget by a vote of 21–19 in March 2003 led to early parliamentary elections in May. Although MTM won 24 of the 40 seats,[5] in the subsequent presidential elections in July, MTM candidate Harry Tong lost to his brother Anote.[6]
The party was subsequently reduced to only seven seats in the 2007 parliamentary elections,[7] and did not nominate a candidate for the presidential elections. In August 2010 it merged with the Kiribati Independent Party to form the United Coalition Party.[8]