Tongan PM retains job after royal ‘sacking’
Nuku’alofa, Tonga, (MILLAT ONLINE):Tonga’s Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva has been returned to power for a second term, just months after the Pacific island’s king effectively sacked him by dissolving parliament and calling a snap election.
Pohiva won a parliamentary ballot late Monday to decide the prime ministership by 14 votes to 12 over rival candidate Siaosi Sovaleni, his former deputy.
It caps a remarkable comeback for the 76-year-old, whose career appeared over following King Tupou VI’s dramatic political intervention in August.
In an unprecedented move, the monarch dissolved parliament a year before the next scheduled election, ordering a poll to be held on November 16.
Against expectations, Pohiva’s Democratic Party won a resounding 14 of the 17 seats elected by the people, five more than in the 2014 election.
It gave Pohiva a majority in the 26-seat parliament, in which nine seats are taken by hereditary nobles, paving the way for Monday’s vote to select the prime minister.
The king never explained why he dissolved parliament, although media reports said there were concerns the government had acted unconstitutionally by signing international agreements without the monarch’s approval.