Tuvalu votes as ties with Taiwan in spotlight

Al Jazeera :
The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has voted in a national election that is being closely watched by China, Taiwan, the United States and its ally Australia, amid a tussle for influence in the region.
There are only a little over 6,000 registered voters in the country of about 11,200 people. Polls have closed and the results from Friday’s election are expected later in the day.
Tuvalu, where the population is spread across nine islands, has campaigned at international conferences for greater action to help low-lying nations address climate change as scientists have warned that its capital, Funafuti, risks being inundated by tides by 2050.
Most of Tuvalu is forecast to be flooded by high tides by 2100, says the United Nations Development Programme, which is working with Tuvalu to bolster its coastline.
A contest for influence in the Pacific between China and the US has seen Tuvalu courted, with Washington recently pledging to connect its remote population by undersea cable to global telecommunications for the first time.