Tonga goes to the polls in 2005 [1]
Wednesday, November 3, 2004 - 18:30. Updated on Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 13:58.
Editor's Comment - By Pesi Fonua
Early in 2005 Tongans will exercise their democratic right and go to the polls to elect their representatives to the Tongan Legislative Assembly.
But the Tongan parliamentary election does not have the drama and the suspense of General Elections in other countries, where political parties with strong ideals, campaign and compete to win the hearts of voters, and the right to run the country. In Tonga a minority choose the government, while the majority form an minority opposition that can never become a government.
In the Tongan parliamentary election, the 33 hereditary noble title holders elect nine representatives, and the rest of the population of over 100,000 elect nine People's Representatives. These 18 elected members then enter the House where they play a traditional role of assisting government - the Cabinet Ministers who were appointed by the King - to govern the country.
Before this election process was introduced in 1923, all members of parliament were nobles. Commoners who become Cabinet Ministers, automatically become nobles when they enter the House, so the composition of the Tongan Parliament today is made up of 21 nobles, (12 Cabinet Ministers and nine Noble's Representatives) and the nine People's Representatives.
The division in the House is between a majority group of 21 nobles and a minority group of nine People's Representatives. It is not uncommon for members to cross the floor, but over the years the dividing line is becoming more fixed, with the elected nobles being identified as the power broker in the House, and the People's Representatives known as the opposition - a minority with not a chance of ever becoming a government.
If the People's Representatives, the minority in the House, are to make any impact at all on Tonga's political process, the People need to find the best opposition candidates available to stand for election.