First Parliamentary Elections Held In Kingdom Of Tonga
November 25th, 2010 - 6:26 pm ICT by GDBy Gina Gomez
Nuku’alofa, Nov 25, (THAINDIAN NEWS) In what is believed to be one of the most significant chapters in the history of the tiny island nation of Tonga, people of the country voted on Thursday to elect the parliament under a revised edition of the constitution. The 42,000 voters of the island nation voted early on Thursday morning to elect 17 representatives of the total of 26 members of the parliament. The rest of the nine parliament members are reserved for the nobilities of the Kingdom of Tonga.
Prior to the affiliation to democracy, the politicians of the island nation were elected by the monarch who was also responsible for picking up the prime minister as well as the cabinet. However, following the retirement of Prime Minister Feleti Sevele, his successor would be now be selected by the representatives who would be elected by the voters in today’s election. According to the electoral officials in the Kingdom of Tonga, the entire voting process was taking place in a ’steady’ manner while it has also been revealed that the provisional results is expected to be out by Thursday evening.
The inclination towards democracy has also been hailed by King George Tupou V who has said in an address to the country that Thursday’s voting was the ‘greatest and most historic day for our kingdom.’ The king noted that the elections were indeed significant as for the very first time in the history of the country, the people of the nation would elect the representatives of the parliament and in turn the government of the country.
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