In a highly anticipated session of the Tongan Parliament to debate and vote on the second vote of no confidence (VONC) scheduled for last Monday, December 9, in Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni Hu’akavameiliku and the Cabinet, Hu’akavameiliku surprised everyone by announcing his resignation — even before the actual debate had begun.

The session began with the Speaker, Lord Fakafanua, announcing the procedure for the day which was to have each of the seven grounds of the VONC read out, followed by the Cabinet’s responses, after which each member of Parliament would be allowed 10 minutes to make a statement for or against.

Before parliamentary staff started reading out the documents, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Samiu Vaipulu moved that the VONC be declared null and void as it did not have the 10 valid signatures that the house rules stipulated.

He claimed that two of the 10 signatures were added on October 10, whereas an event included in VONC did not begin until October 21, thus making those signatures invalid. That event was the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which was held in Samoa, October 21-26, and the VONC cited it in relation to alleged Cabinet overspending on overseas travel.

After an hour and half of debate on the DPM’s motion, the Speaker ruled that despite the technical shortcoming, he would proceed with the VONC at 2pm after the lunch break. Hu’akavameiliku immediately asked for a break, as only 10 minutes remained before the lunch break, but the Speaker sided with VONC supporters and ruled that the debate begin straight away.

That is when Hu’akavameiliku asked for the floor and proceeded to thank everyone from the King to the nobles and his Cabinet members and the movers of the VONC before announcing his resignation.

The second VONC had been tabled on November 25. The Speaker instructed the parliamentary committee responsible to scrutinise it for compliance with parliamentary rules and determine whether additional information was needed before making it available to the Prime Minister and Cabinet by November 29.

More time request granted
Hu’akavameiliku was initially required to submit his response by December 3 for debate and ballot. But on November 28 the Speaker granted his request for more time, rescheduling the debate to December 9. The movers of the VONC were not happy, particularly given that the first one submitted in August 2023 had contained 46 grounds (compared with seven in the second), to which the Prime Minister and Cabinet had responded to in detail within five days.

There is reason to suspect that there was more to the request for extension than meets the eye. The inaugural graduation ceremony for the Tonga National University, which opened in January 2023, was held over three days beginning December 4, with the University’s Chancellor, King Tupou VI, officiating. Hu’akavameiliku, as Pro-Chancellor and chair of the University Council and Minister for Education and Training, facilitated the first day’s ceremony.

That date, December 4, marked the 1845 coronation of King Siaosi Tupou I, the founder of modern Tonga. Notably, King Tupou VI was absent on the second and third days, with Lord Fakafanua and Hu’akavameiliku stepping in to play the Chancellor’s role.

In a media conference on November 25 after the VONC was tabled, Hu’akavameiliku defended the VONC movers’ constitutional right to introduce it, but also said that since he only had a year left of his four-year term, he would have preferred a dialogue about their concerns.

He gave the impression to the media that he had the numbers to defeat this second VONC. However, his numbers were tight.

As of November 10, his Cabinet had nine members, reduced from 10 after his Minister for Lands and Survey, Lord Tu’i’afitu, resigned after receiving a letter from the Palace Office saying King Tupou VI had withdrawn his confidence and trust in him as minister.

Of the nine remaining members, four were People’s Representatives (PRs), including the Prime Minister, two were Nobles’ Representatives (NRs) and three were Non-Elected Representatives who could not vote on the VONC.

Question mark over allegiance
o, with six votes in hand, Hu’akavameiliku needed eight more to beat the VONC. He could usually count on five PRs — Tevita Puloka, Dulcie Tei, Sione Taione, Veivosa Taka and Mo’ale ‘Otunuku — and possibly three NRs that could have sided with him, Lord Tuiha’angana, Lord Fakafanua and Prince Kalaniuvalu.

But there was a question mark over Prince Kalaniavalu’s allegiance as he had voted in favour of the first VONC in September 2023.

The movers of the second VONC were confident they had the numbers this time round. Lord Tu’ilakepa, who had voted against the VONC in 2023, was one of the signatories this time around. Previously, Lord Tu’ileakepa had almost always voted with the Prime Minister and was loathe to be associated with members of Parliament who had any pro-democracy inclinations.

The seven PR signatories were Dr Langi Fasi, Mateni Tapueleuelu, Dr ‘Aisake Eke, Piveni Piukala, Kapeli Lanumata, Mo’ale Finau and Vatau Hui. They were also guaranteed the vote of Dr Tanieta Fusmalohi, still making his way back from COP29.

So, they had 11 guaranteed votes, and 13 if the recently resigned Minister, Lord Tu’I’afitu, and Prince Kalaniuvalu sided with them. As with the first VONC, the NRs would play a crucial role, controlling nine of the 26 seats (more than 33 percent of the Parliament) despite representing less than 1 percent of the country’s population.

Since King Tupou VI withdrew his confidence and trust in Hu’akavameiliku as Minister for Defence and Fekita ‘Utoikamanu as Minister for Foreign Affairs early in 2024, the Prime Minister continued as Acting Minister in those two portfolios.

There was hope that substantive Ministers would have been appointed (from the Royal Family) by the time of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting in Nuku’alofa in August 24, but it was not to be.

Relations remained strained
In spite of the hulouifi (traditional reconciliation ceremony) performed in February, relations between the King and Hu’akavameiliku remained strained. One cannot help but think that the Palace Office was at least supportive of the VONC, if not among the instigators.

As PIF chair until next year’s leaders’ summit in Solomon Islands, Hu’akavameiliku reportedly felt let down by King Tupou VI’s absence from the country during the Leaders’ Meeting — not least because his father, King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, and his brother, Prince Tuipelehake, were instrumental in setting up the PIF (South Pacific Forum, at that time) in 1972.

Together with Fiji’s Ratu Kamisese Mara, Cook Islands’ Sir Albert Henry, Nauru’s Hammer De Roburt, Samoa’s Malietoa and Niue’s Robert Rex, they walked out of the then South Pacific Commission (SPC) when they could no longer stand being treated like children by the colonial powers (US, France, UK, the Netherlands, Australia, and NZ) at the annual SPC meetings and their refusal to include decolonisation and nuclear testing on SPC’s agenda.

The Speaker immediately recessed parliament after Hu’akavameiliku’s announcement. By the time it reconvened at 2pm he had a letter from the Palace Office saying they had received the PM’s resignation in writing.

In spite of vociferous opposition from some of the VONC movers, he announced that, under section 18 of the Government Act, DPM Samiu Vaipulu would be Acting Prime Minister (in an interim Cabinet of existing members) until December 24, when Parliament is scheduled to elect a new Prime Minister from its existing membership of the house.

Lopeti Senituli is a law practitioner in Tonga and is the immediate past president of the Tonga Law Society. He was Political and Media Adviser to Prime Ministers Dr Feleti Vaka’uta Sevele (2006-2010) and Samuela ‘Akilisi Pohiva (2018-2019). This article was first published by Devpolicy Blog and is republished with the author’s permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Tonga’s Parliament has elected a new prime minister to replace Dr Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa.

Siaosi Sovaleni, 51, the current Minister of Education, has won convincingly with 16 votes, against former Minister of Finance and MP Dr ‘Aisake Eke, who got 10 votes.

The Interim Speaker, Lord Tangi, announced the results this afternoon after he first informed King Tupou VI about the winner.

The results showed what appeared to be the nobility MPs’ votes being split with apparently four of them supporting Sovaleni while the remaining five voted for Dr Eke.

Sovaleni, who was a minister in good standing in the Tu’i’onetoa government, recently crossed the floor to form his new bloc and gain the support from a united group of independent MPs and PTOA Party MPs.

Three other MPs who were part of Tu’i’onetoa’s PAK party, also crossed the floor and joined Sovaleni.

The only People’s MP and interim cabinet minister who supported Dr Tu’i’onetoa was the Niua MP Vātau Hui.

The defection of the four members meant Dr Tu’i’onetoa was forced to withdraw his candidacy for the premiership election because he did not have the number of MPs required by law to support and nominate him as a candidate.

As Kaniva News reported this week, Dr Tu’i’onetoa complained about being dumped by his own interim cabinet ministers, saying he just found out after the general elections on November 18 that his unity with his interim ministers in the past four months had been “fake”.

Education, health and climate among priorities
In his speech before the election today, Sovaleni said people, the chiefs and the king lived under what he described as one house. He said people had to learn to know how to live together.

He said education, health, economic developments, e-government, climate change, war on illicit drugs, natural disasters, youths and women initiatives and good governance were some of his priorities.

In his vote of thanks after he was declared the winner this afternoon, Sovaleni was emotional and congratulated his supporters and all MPs.

He also thanked his unsuccessful rival candidate Dr Eke and said they had previously worked together in the Ministry of Finance.

Republished with permission as part of a collaboration between Kaniva News and Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

As in 2008, 2010 and 2014, none of the female candidates standing in Tonga’s 2021 general election this week have been successful.

Out of a total of 38,500 votes, 34,198 were cast for the male candidates and only 4352 were cast for the 12 female candidates, down from 14 percent of total votes in 2017 to 11 percent in 2021.

The only female MP incumbent running, Losaline Ma’asi, did not make it for a second term.

At the 2017 snap elections she won 35 percent (1034) of the total number of votes in her constituency Tongatapu 5. On Thursday, she won only 23 percent (614).

Her Royal Highness Princess Angelika Lātūfuipeka Halaevalu Mataʻaho Napua-o-kalani Tukuʻaho at the opening of Tonga Women’s Parliament 2021 — just three days before election day — reminded us that there is a need to move away from just a desire to increase the number of women in Parliament to having a concrete action plan to achieve it.

She made a strong statement that the current arrangements are not sufficient for increasing the number of women in Parliament. This is the key to opening up the dialogue for re-visiting and re-educating decision makers on temporary special measures (TSM) such as reserved seats, affirmative action party quotas and legislature quotas that have long been contested in Tonga.

Women in Tonga were given universal suffrage in 1951. This was a political milestone for women navigated by her late Majesty Queen Sālote Tupou III who was one of only two women in Tonga’s history to occupy the powerful position of monarch.

Only 6 women MPs
However, since 1951, only six women have been elected to Parliament, a few more than once, for a total of only 10 female electoral victories.

The irony is that the majority of those who not only registered but who turned up to vote have been women, at all general elections since 2005.

So what is happening?

Two major pieces of research on voter’s perception of women as leaders conducted in 2016-17 and 2020-21, using the same research methodology, showed that the majority of eligible voters believed key decision-making and leadership roles are best left to men and that roles such as household work and nurturing children are a women’s responsibility.

The following table gives a few highlights of the comparative results of these studies:

This widespread belief that leadership and key decision-making roles are best suited to men unfortunately translates into the results we see at election after election.

To change the story, one needs to have a good understanding of the difference between equality and equity.

In Tonga, women do not have the same social, cultural, political and economic experiences as men. Society does not perceive women the same way they perceive men.

Women pushed backwards
Moral standards and domestic expectations are not held against men as highly and rigidly as they are held against women. This automatically pushes women backwards, further down the field and it soon becomes clear that the playing field is not level at all.

Equity forces us to dig deeper and think more critically. To understand the lived experiences of women, we need to unpack the constructed private and public dichotomy — society’s patriarchal expectations of women.

The social expectation that women will prioritise managing the home and its affairs, taking care of the children, and attending to their husbands’ needs will continue to result in attitudes at the voting booth that do not favour women as leaders.

Temporary special measures are measures that work on changing attitudes and behaviour over time as the general public becomes exposed to larger numbers of women in Parliament.

For younger people, in particular, having more women in Parliament will become a norm for them rather than something to be desired. Once TSMs are removed, the country will return to the normal voting procedure with the anticipation that voters no longer frame leadership as a gendered role.

In the case of Rwanda, a constitutional amendment in 2003 provided that 30 percent of its seats must be reserved for women. By 2018, the share of females MPs had increased to 60 percent.

Often zero representation
The last four elections in Tonga have never resulted in more than 8 percent female representation in Parliament, and often, as this time, it has been zero.

We need significant change. We must aim for at least 30 percent or more by taking legislative action.

If this is not possible now, we need to build our women’s movement over the next four to five years and work towards revolutionary change in attitudes and mindsets — it can be done.
#WatchThisSpace2025

‘Ofa-Ki-Levuka (‘Ofa) Guttenbeil-Likiliki is director of the Women and Children Crisis Centre (WCCC) in Tonga, a women’s rights activist and a filmmaker. Republished under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz