The process of forming Tonga's new government and choosing a Prime Minister following the November 16 General Election, will start on or before November 30, but the process may continue to mid-December.

The timing will depend on when the Writ of Election is returned to the King advising him of the election results, the Supervisor for Elections Pita Vuki and Deputy Clerk of the Legislative Assembly Dr Sione Vikilani, told an Election Reporting workshop last week.

Pita said the Electoral Commission would announce the results of the voting for candidates, on the night of the election, November 16.

During the 2014 General Election, they announced the preliminary election results at around 8:00pm, for the 10 constituencies of Tongatapu. This was followed by the overall results of all 17 constituencies, announced at around 11:00pm.

"Hopefully we would be able to do the same in this election. The counting should be a similar exercise; the polling officials will sort out the ballot papers according to votes, count them and report to us for final announcement," he said.

Writ

Pita said the process of the election starts when a document called the Writ of Election, is first given to the Electoral Commission by the King as required under the Electoral Act.

"Once we receive the writ it confirms the dates of the election, provides the polling places for election and states the dates on when the writ is to be returned to him.

“It says under the writ it has to be returned on or before November 30," he said.

After the election, seven-days are allowed for the candidates to demand a recount. "So we might not return the writ immediately after the elections and wait seven days to ensure there is no recount," he said.

“The formation of government and also the election of the PM all depends on when the Writ is being returned to the King.”

The writ can be returned before November 30 and Parliament then can start their process, he said.

In the last election, Pita said one candidate demanded a recount of the ballot papers, which had a difference of three votes, and the outcome was not changed.

Election of PM

He said the Return of the Writ and the Declaration of Results are two different things.

The declaration of the results can be on November 16 or the next day, once election results are known. But the Return of Writ can be on or before November 30.

He said within seven-days after the declaration of the election results, the King will appoint an Interim Speaker. The current Speaker will remain as Speaker until the King appoints the Interim Speaker.

The Interim Speaker is the person who will oversee the process of the election of the Prime Minister and the new Speaker, he said.

Nominations

Within 10 days following the Return of the Writ of the election, the Interim Speaker shall invite the elected representatives to submit nominations for the Prime Minister. Each nomination should be seconded by two MPs or two elected representatives.

Nominations shall be submitted to the Interim Speaker within 14-days of the Return of the Writ.

Pita said that within three-days from the last day to receive the nominations for the Prime Minister, the Interim Speaker shall call a meeting of all elected representatives of parliament to decide who they would recommend to the appointment of Prime Minister.

Sione Vikilani, said that if only one candidate was received that person would become the Prime Minister. If there was two [or more] then they would decide through the process of a secret ballot, within those three-days.

The Prime Minister will be elected in a secret ballot. Before the ballot, both candidates are given a chance to speak and also members may show their support for their nominated candidates. 

After the ballot the Interim Speaker shall report the result to the King and then Lord Chamberlain summons the Prime Minister designate to be appointed by King.

“It's good to note, even though Parliament elects the PM, the appointment will be done by the King,” he said.

After the Prime Minister is elected, then within five days, the King shall appoint one of the elected nobles to the Speaker, following a recommendation from parliament. The deputy speaker is the one who received the second highest number of voters from the members of parliament.,

The PM then appoints his Ministers from within the 26 elected members and there is also a provision in the Constitution that allows the PM to appoint up to four cabinet ministers from non-elected members.

In the government from 2014-17 no one was appointed from outside, who was not elected, he said.

Voters

Tonga has 57,391 registered voters on the main role on 15 September, although this number will increase with a supplementary role that was opened.

The national census in 2016 counted 51,525 people over the age of 21 years who are eligible to vote, but only 85.4% of those had registered, Pita said. The census discovered that nearly one third of the people who had not registered to vote said they were not interested. Over half of the group who were not interested in voting were aged 21-24 years.

"So we should be doing more programmes to convince young people to get interested and become voters," Pita said.

Tonga's "first past the post" voting system is a simple one whereby voters indicate the candidate of their choice and the candidate with the most votes in each constituency wins the seat.

"Counting the ballots is a simple exercise," he said.

This year the government has invited three agencies to be observers of the election, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the US Embassy Suva. "They will provide to us and government a report on their observations."

Funded by Australian Aid through the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS), the election reporting workshop was attended by journalists and women parliamentary candidates, representatives from civil society and youth groups.