Tongan noble arrested as Govt being formed

Democracy leader 'Akilisi Pohiva's group won 71 per cent of the votes. Photo / Audrey Young

One of the nine Tongan nobles elected to Parliament last week has been arrested following a co-ordinated police raid on premises in at least four countries.

The arrest has shocked the kingdom, which is in the midst of forming a government after the elections.

Meanwhile, Democracy leader 'Akilisi Pohiva called on the nobles last night to "review their position" and work with the people's representatives to form a people's-led government, the first since democratic reforms.

And he called on the independents to respect the results, which saw the 12 democracy candidates win 71 per cent of the peoples' seats compared with 29 per cent for other candidates.

"We need unity," he told the Weekend Herald. "People want to see nobles and people's representatives work together, stand together."

Mr Pohiva would not say whether the arrest would affect the formation of the government, but said it reflected badly on the image of the nobles.

The police raids are understood to be connected to cocaine, but the noble Tuilakepa was arrested on a firearms charge on Thursday night and remanded in custody. Simultaneous raids were made in Australia, Colombia and Venezuela and were part of an Australian-led operation.

The noble was out of jail in Nuku'alofa yesterday morning in time to attend a press conference held by the new interim Speaker, Lord Tupou, appointed by King George Tupou V.

Mr Pohiva has invited Tuilakepa and the eight other noble MPs, elected by 33 aristocrats under the revised constitution, to a meeting at 10am today at the parliamentary offices in a bid to form a government.

Candidates aligned to Mr Pohiva's Democracy Party - parties are not recognised in the electoral system - won 12 of the 17 people's seats.

Five more seats were won by independents and Mr Pohiva said last night he had the support of one of them, needing only one more. But he wanted to get nobles on side as well.

"If they turn up it is going to be a good chance for the nobles and people's representatives to sit down and have common issues to be discussed.

"It is clear that His Majesty has already surrendered his constitutional power to the people, not to the nobles. So we expect nobles and independent people's reps to respect the King's position."

He had written to each of the nobles inviting them to the meeting.

He had also written to the independents twice, inviting them to a meeting, but only two had attended.

Mr Pohiva's deputy, Sitiveni Halapua, is resisting pressure to put himself forward for prime minister from those who think he would be more moderate and acceptable than Mr Pohiva.

Last week, the nobles supported the notion of a people's representative leading the government, but that was before the election.

Since then, Noble Tuivakano has been spearheading a faction within the aristocrats hoping to lead a new government of nobles and independents and shutting out Mr Pohiva's party.

Meanwhile, Mr Pohiva said reports that he had been planning to hold a rally yesterday were wrong - he wanted a meeting only to explain the process to democracy supporters. But it had been postponed.

The party thought it better to have a celebration once the government was formed.