Parliament to sit next week [1]
Thursday, June 28, 2012 - 17:20. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Tonga's parliamentarians will go back to work in the House next week, after the Speaker this afternoon cancelled their annual tours, which were scheduled to begin on Monday.
The Speaker, Lord Lasike announced that parliament would start working on a Motion for a Vote of No Confidence on the Prime Minister on Monday, July 2.
After the House rejected a motion this morning for the House to immediately start deliberating the Motion for a Vote of No Confidence on the Prime Minister, the members drifted away into an argument over whether or not the two Cabinet Ministers who were appointed by the Prime Minister from outside the House had the right to vote on the urgency of the matter.
Apart from that diversion, the members spent most of the afternoon arguing over whether the Speaker had the right to vote twice or not. The members of the Cabinet argued that he had a right to vote as a noble, but if there was a tie, then he had the right, being the Speaker for a casting vote. After spending some time on the issue, the Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Samiu Vaipulu moved for the House to allow 14 days to prepare a response to the accusations in the motion that had been leveled at the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.
The accusations were not specifically read out in the House but there were hints that some members were dissatisfied with the Prime Minister's reshuffling of his Cabinet.
'Akilisi Pohiva one of the People's Representatives who signed a motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the Prime Minister suggested four days.
The Speaker was just about ready to call for votes on 14 or four days, when Lord Tu'ilakepa moved that instead of calling for votes, which would be definitely won by the Cabinet and their supporters, that the Speaker should use his privilege and announce when they should start working on the Motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the PM.
The Speaker then cancelled the annual national tour for the members of parliament and called for the debate on the Motion for a Vote of No Confidence to start on Monday.