“Aisake Valu Eke, former finance minister, will lead the Pacific nation until November 2025 elections.”
Tonga has elected a new leader in a secret vote in parliament, two weeks after the previous prime minister abruptly took over the presidency resignedafter a power struggle with the Pacific country’s royal family.
Veteran politician ‘Aisake Valu Eke secured 16 votes against his opponent Viliami Latu’s eight votes in Tuesday’s vote.
Valu Eke, who will be officially sworn in as prime minister in February, was first elected to parliament in 2010 and served as finance minister from 2014 to 2017.
He will be in office for less than a year before the South Pacific island nation of 105,000 holds its next election in November 2025.
Tonga’s parliament consists of 17 popularly elected legislators and nine nobles elected by a group of hereditary chiefs. Two MPs were unable to vote.
Siaosi Sovaleni resigned as prime minister two weeks ago after falling out with Tonga’s influential King Tupou VI. had a clash, which led to speculation about a change growing gap between the monarch and his government.
The Oxford-educated Sovaleni, who was prime minister from 2021, tendered his resignation just hours before a no-confidence vote led by Eke. A statement on the Tongan Parliament’s Facebook page said the prime minister had resigned “for the good of the country and the further development of Tonga.”
Sovaleni’s term has been marked by periodic tensions between Tonga’s monarchy and elected lawmakers in a young democracy where reforms in 2010 shifted power from the royal family and nobles to ordinary citizens.
Tonga revised its constitution after pro-democracy protests in 2006 led to unrest that left much of the capital, Nuku’alofa, in smoking ruins.
King Tupou VI, Tonga’s head of state, retains significant powers, including the power to dissolve parliament, appoint judges and exercise veto power.
Tourism-dependent Tonga has struggled to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, growing threats from climate change and a catastrophic volcanic eruption and tsunami in 2022 that devastated beach resorts, homes and businesses across the country’s 171 islands .
The indebted island nation owes around $130 million – nearly a third of its gross domestic product – to the Chinese export bank, which it borrowed to help rebuild after the 2006 unrest. Repayments on this loan should skyrocket this year.
