By Katalina Siasau

A new Prime Minister will be selected on Christmas Eve, 24 December, the Speaker announced during the afternoon session of Parliament today, shortly after King Tupou VI accepted the resignation of Hon. Hu’akavameiliku (Siaosi Sovaleni) as his Prime Minister.

When the House returned to its afternoon session today, 9 December, a statement was read from the King’s Private Secretary, Sione Fifita, announcing that the King had received and had accepted the resignation of Siaosi Sovaleni as Prime Minister.

The Speaker, Lord Fakafanua gave the House 14 days from today, for members to nominate candidates to be the new Prime Minister, according to Clause 50A of the Constitution.

The deadline for submitting nominations is 23 December.

The Parliament will reconvene on 24 December, to proceed with the next steps in the process of selecting of a new Prime Minister. Within three days of the nominations deadline, the Speaker will convene a meeting of all elected representatives from both the People's and Nobles' Representatives to decide on a recommendation for the new Prime Minister.

However, Lord Tu’ivakano questioned who would lead the government for the next 14 days. “Or, ask the King to provide a temporary cabinet,” he said.

The Speaker noted that according to the law, the Deputy Prime Minister (Hon. Samiu Vaipulu) would take on the roles and responsibilities of the Prime Minister, until a new Prime Minister was appointed.

Lord Fakafanua then directed that both the Motion for the Vote of No Confidence and the Prime Minister’s response be made publicly available as official documents, even though the Motion had not been read in the House. The two documents are now available on Parliament's website:

Motion for the Vote of No Confidence [2]

Prime Minister’s response [3]

Resignation: "Best thing to do"

"I believe this is the best thing to do," the Prime Minister told a media briefing outside the Parliament chamber, shortly after he announced his resignation as PM,

"If others think that I'm the problem, then I’ll step aside… If I continue on, there’ll be more noises, I think it does not help with Tonga moving forward."

“I'd hoped that our response was [read in Parliament] because it would show there was nothing that we were afraid to respond to.”

“The hope is that the next PM can continue the work.”

Reporters asked if the relationship between the Government and the King had been resolved.

“Part of why [I have] resigned, is that if someone is disappointed with me, then they should not anymore because I have resigned.”

He said he would continue in his role as People’s Representative of Tongatapu 3, and would run for Parliament in next year’s general election, that will be held in November.

Hon. Hu’akavameiliku was appointed Prime Minister of Tonga in December 2021. During the first few weeks of his government Tonga was struck with the Hunga Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai natural disasters and CoVID arrived in the country.