Tongans to vote for four more M.P.s

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 28

Tongans to vote for four more M.P.s

From

MARY FONUA

in Nukualofa

Tongans will go to the polls on May 3 to choose their members of Parliament for the next three years. Some 40,000 voters have registered, an increase of more than 5 per cent on the number who registered to vote in the previous election. Thirty-one candidates from five electoral districts will compete for the nine people’s seats. The Legislative Assembly will have four more members when its 1984 session opens in June. Two new electoral districts — the island of ’Eua and the isolated northern Niuafo’ou and Niuatoputapu Islands — will provide two new people’s representatives and two new nobles’ representatives. The change in representation is the first in 70 years

although the Tongan population has quadrupled to 100,000 in that time. The increase will make very little difference to the voting power of the people. The new 28-member Legislative Assembly will include 10 Cabinet Ministers, nine nobles’ representatives, and nine people’s representatives. On May 2 the nobles will select their own nine representatives from among the 33 noble titles of the realm. Among those eligible to enter the House this year are the two youngest sons of the King. Prince Lavaka-ata is eligible for the nobles’ seats of Tongatapu and ’Eua, and Prince Ma’atu, whose marriage to a commoner cost him the right of succession, is one of the four nobles to compete for the Niua nobles’ seat.