From the House, by Pesi Fonua

The Tongan Parliament will resume its 2018 session at 10am tomorrow, Thursday 8 November, according to a parliamentary press release that was circulated early this evening.

The Office of the Speaker, however, wanted to correct a public presumption that next on the Agenda of the House is an Impeachment of the Prime Minister and six Cabinet Ministers, because to date the House had not received any motion for the Impeachment of a member of Parliament.

Petition calls for impeachment

This is, of course, is not in line with the objective of the Petition 3,330 people calling for the Impeachment of the Prime Minister and six Cabinet Ministers.

In the first paragraph of the Letter of petition, it states that its Kaveinga (objective) was firstly to defer debate on the National Budget for 2018-19; secondly, for the Auditor General to audit part of the budgets for 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 and also Ministries of seven Cabinet Ministers; and thirdly to take note that there will be an application for impeachment of Cabinet Ministers.

When the House adjourned in the early hours of Friday morning, they decided to resume this week when a final decision on what to do with the Petition would be made.