House delays Tonga’s Vote of No Confidence proceedings [1]
Thursday, February 23, 2017 - 21:55. Updated on Thursday, February 23, 2017 - 22:26.
From the House by Pesi Fonua.
There were further delays today to the Tongan Parliament's deliberations on a motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the Prime Minister, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva.
Since Monday 20 February Parliament has postponed its sessions every day while the House’s Standing Committee on Privileges was working on the response of the PM to the Motion. The response must be presented before it can be tabled into the House. Parliament had allocated five days for the House to deal with the Motion and after today there will be only one more day allowed to conclude the matter.
Today's recess was reportedly allowed so that defamatory remarks on two private individuals could be deleted from the response of the Prime Minister to the Motion.
The Prime Minister insisted that he would not remove the defamatory references to these two individuals. In the end the Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni moved for the references and the names of the two individuals to be deleted from the response.
The motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the Prime Minister Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva is having a bumpy ride through parliament since it was presented to the Speaker, Lord Tu’ivakano on 2 February.
On Monday 13 February, copies of the motion were distributed to members of the House, and the Speaker announced that the PM could respond to the Motion, before the House started its five-days of deliberation on the Motion scheduled from 20 to 27 February.
On Monday 20 February Lord Tu’iha’angana, the chairman of the House’s Standing Committee on Privileges tabled the Motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the PM into the House, and it was read in the House for the first time.
The Minister of Police, Hon. Pohiva Tu’I’onetoa pointed out an obvious error. Lord Tu’ilakepa put his signature on pages 6 and 9, and dated them 31/9/17. It should have been 31/1/17. Lord Tu’ilakepa admitted it was an error and it was unanimously agreed to by the House for Lord Tu’ilakepa to initial a correction from 31/9/17 to 31/1/17.
There was still no response from the PM to Motion for the Vote of No Confidence, but he assured the House he would table his response either that evening or the following morning, 21 February. He was convinced that the House could make a decision on the Vote of No Confidence by Wednesday, 22 February. But that has not happened.
Postponed
Since the House broke up on Monday, 20 September, the proceedings have been postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday, then from Wednesday to 2pm today, Thursday 23 February.
The delay in the House’s deliberation over the Motion for the Vote of No Confidence was because the Privilege Committee considered two names that were raised by the PM in his 17 points response were improper.
Lord Tu’iha’angana, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Privileges told the House that the Committee unanimously agreed for the PM to either remove those two clauses from his 17 clauses response or they would not present his response to the House.
The PM insisted that he would not remove clauses 6 and 9.
The Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, wanted to know if the House would still be able to proceed with its deliberation of the Motion if the House rejected the PM response.
The Speaker assured the Deputy Prime Minister that the House woud still continue with the Motion.
“Remove clauses 6 and 9, then read the remaining 15 clauses,” said the DPM.
It was then time to break.
Afternoon tea
Following afternoon tea, Lord Tu’iha’angana told the House that they needed more time to amend the PM’s response. He clarified that they were removing names and rearranging paragraphs, and they have to go through the whole article.
The Speaker suggested for the House to meet briefly tomorrow to hear the response of the PM to the Motion, but he was concerned that it may clash with the Cabinet’s routinely held Friday morning session.
The PM responded that it should be OK.
The Motion for a Vote of No Confidence in a Prime Minister, is the second to be tabled into the Tongan Parliament. The first was led by the current Prime Minister against the Speaker, when he was Tonga’s first democratically elected PM in 2012.
The procedure of how to process a motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the PM and his Cabinet remains a work in progress.