By Linny Folau

Former Prime Minister and Tongatapu No. 10 People’s Representative, Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa retains his seat in the Legislative Assembly, after his appeals were upheld by the Appeal Court on 9 August.

Two other People's Representatives, namely Tevita Puloka for Tongatapu 1 and 'Uhilamoelangi Fasi for Tongatapu 2, also kept their parliamentary seats, after appeals against them were dismissed.

The Special Appeal Session was held in July.

Successful appeals

In Tu'i'onetoa's case, there were three appeals.

He filed two appeals against orders of the Supreme Court, which were upheld. A third was a cross-appeal filed by Taniela Kiu, which was dismissed.

The Appeal court upheld his appeal against against his certification of offences of bribery under the Electoral Act, at the Supreme Court in what was called the 'Niutao event'. This election petition was filed by Kiu.

The Appeal Court stated, that the case for the petitioner was that the then Minister of Finance, with the approval of appellant who was the then Prime Minister, promised the money to the committee of the Association as an inducement for its members to vote for the appellant.

The committee would receive the payment on behalf of the women of Tongatapu 10.

"We are inclined to the view that the respondent did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the Minister of Finance's promise of the payment of TOP$50,000, if otherwise caught by s21(l)(a) was made on behalf of the appellant."

The Appeal judges stated, they cannot be sure that the appellant, seemingly taken by surprise by the announcement, would have realized that at least some of the electors in the audience thought it was simply an unconditional gift from the government.

"If, contrary to our conclusion, the respondent had proved that a promise of a gift of TOP$50,000 was made on the appellant's behalf to identifiable electors at Niutao, we would have found that the appellant had not discharged the reverse onus and shown that the promise was, on the balance of probabilities, not intended to induce any elector to vote for him."

The Appeal Court also upheld Tu'i'onetoa's other appeal, in an election petition filed by Kapelieli Lanumata.

"His principal complaint here was that the trial judge impermissibly allowed evidence going well beyond the allegation made in that paragraph of the petition, and in large measure based his finding, that bribery had been proved upon that impermissible evidence, a good deal of which emerged only inquestions from the judge himself."

Dismissal

Meanwhile, the other two Tongatapu People's Representatives remains as Members of Parliament.

This was after, the Appeal Court dismissed an appeal by Siaosi Pohiva against the dismissal of his bribery allegation against Puloka.

Semisi Sika also had his appeal against the dismissal of his bribery claim against Fasi dismissed.

A total of eight election petitions were heard during this Special Appeal session.

Three Members of Parliament had their elections voided, after their appeals against certification of offences of bribery under the Electoral Act, at the Supreme Court were dismissed. They included former Tongatapu Representatives, Tatafu Moeaki, Poasi Tei and Sangster Saulala, who were also Cabinet Ministers.

A total of eight judgments from a Special Court of Appeal session, held last month, were released late afternoon yesterday in Nuku'alofa, by the Appeal Court President, Justice Sir Peter Blanchard, with Justice White, Justice Estcourt and Justice de Jersey.