Tongans ready to vote under 'ordinary peoples' constitution

Prime Minister Feleti Sevele is retiring from politics. Photo / Getty Images

Tonga holds historic elections today under a revised constitution in which the representatives of ordinary people will outnumber the hereditary representatives for the first time.

Ordinary people will vote to elect 17 members during is forecast to be a dull, wet day in the kingdom.

The nobles will gather at the Palace Office at 10am to deliberate over their nine representatives.

Before today, ordinary people had the chance to elect only nine of what was a 33-member legislature.

Prime Minister Feleti Sevele is retiring from politics, and the new prime minister will be elected from the Parliament, not appointed by the King, George Tupou V.

Campaigning, which included a noisy parade of candidates' floats, ended late on Tuesday.

The new law stipulates that advertising material had to be taken down by yesterday morning at 9am.

Lesieli Latu and Mele Sama made it in the nick of time. From windows they pulled in the banners from a building promoting their boss, businessman Siosaia Moehau.

He is one of 15 candidates seeking one place to represent the electorate known as Tongatapu No 6.

And according to one of the first political opinion polls conducted in Tonga - a sample of 2420 face-to-face respondents - Mr Moehau is leading.

He was also the candidate attending a function with Chinese ambassador Wang Dong Hua, who was accused by pro-democracy MP Akilisi Phiva of involving himself in domestic politics.

The ambassador says he was at a farewell for Princess Pilolevu Tuita, who was leaving for San Francisco.

One or two hoardings were missed, including one opposite the Dateline hotel on Nuku'alofa's waterfront.

Ahongalu Fusimalohi is one of seven candidates for electorate No 4 on the main Tongatapu island.

As general secretary of the Tonga Football Association, he had been caught up in the latest corrupt-voting scandal.

He got a three-year ban from Fifa and a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs - but his candidacy is intact.

There have been a couple of late disqualifications.

Tonga's supervisor of the election, Pita Vuni, received an order late yesterday from the Supreme Court striking out two names of people standing in Tongatapu No 1.

When the Herald called at the Electoral Commission office yesterday, a couple of staff were spending the last hours ruling out the two names from the ballot paper of that electorate.

The law prohibits people standing for a people's position if they owe a debt that a court has ordered to be paid.

The law does not bar a member of the nobility with a similar debt.

Each electorate has about 2000 voters.

There is no pre-election-day voting.

Being the historic day it is, Tonga invited New Zealand and Australia to send election observers.

The Australians sent nine officials and New Zealand sent four MPs - National's John Hayes and Chester Borrows, and Labour's Shane Jones and David Parker - and one ex-Labour Party minister, Noel Scott.