A petition, pleading for King Tupou VI to dismantle parliament and call a new General Election “because the people no longer trust the Parliament and the Government” was delivered this afternoon to the Palace Office, by Siaosi Pohiva, the Tongatapu No. 1 People’s Representative and his supporters.

The letter of petition expressed concern that the government and the parliament did not react immediately to the concerns that were expressed by the King in his opening speech of the Tongan parliament on 6 May, when the King expressed his disappointment that Parliament was overlooking a failure of government to manage the affairs of the country.

In the House’s letter of response to the King’s speech there was no proposal for clear urgent action to solve the problem, apart from “we will tell you what we have achieved before the closure of the House at the end of the year.”

It was also pointed out in the petition that after the opening of parliament, it was closed for 11 days so that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet could attend a wedding in Vava’u and it “took two days to respond to HM’s opening speech of parliament”.