Islanders to vote after king dissolved parliament

NUKU’ALOFA: Tongans go to the polls today after the South Pacific kingdom’s monarch took the unprecedented step of dissolving parliament and calling an election.

King Tupou VI has never explained why he dramatically intervened in the island nation’s politics in August, dismissing Akilisi Pohiva, the first commoner to ever serve as Tonga’s prime minister.

But many hope the poll will help reinvigorate the tiny nation’s stalled experiment with democracy, which descended into in-fighting and instability under Mr Pohiva.

Candidate Ana Bing Fonua, who resigned from a top public service job to contest the election, said more women and young people should be represented.

“There needs to be a diversity in parliament and the youth voice is absent,” she said. “There are social issues that women need to address. I also want to lift the calibre of the character of the MPs in how they deliberate.”

Tonga, with 60,000 voters from a population of just 110,000, has a 26-seat parliament with 17 members elected by the people and nine spots taken by hereditary nobles.

Suffrage was extended in 2010 after rioting in the capital Nuku’alofa four years earlier that left eight people dead, sparked by anger that reform of the semi-feudal political system was progressing too slowly.

Mr Pohiva, once a prominent prodemocracy activist, was widely criticised for failing to adapt to leadership after he was elected in 2014.

After his August sacking, parliamentary speaker Lord Tu’ivakano said that the prime minister had been trying to “trespass” on the monarch’s powers.

He also said Mr Pohiva wasted parliament’s time with “frivolous” motions of impeachment.

Unofficial results are expected late today but the process of selecting a prime minister and forming a government could take weeks.

Tonga does not have formal political parties, meaning post-election negotiations involve protracted horse trading.