Tonga’s prime minister quits moments ahead of no-confidence motion in parliament
Tonga’s Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni abruptly
resigned in parliament on Monday ahead of a planned no-confidence vote in his
leadership, capping a period of fraught relations between his government and
Tonga’s king.
Sovaleni, who took office in 2021, did not specify
a reason for his departure but his resignation halted the no-confidence motion
expected on Monday. It was not immediately clear who would succeed him.
His resignation comes less than a year before a
national election in Tonga, a South Pacific island nation of 105,000 people,
and it highlighted the occasional tensions between Tonga’s monarchy and elected
lawmakers in a still-young democracy after reforms that transferred powers from
the royal family and nobles to regular citizens in 2010.
A statement on the Tongan Parliament Facebook page
said Sovaleni, 54, quit “for the good of the country and moving Tonga forward.”
Video from Tonga’s parliament on Monday showed the leader making brief and
emotional remarks in Tongan before the no-confidence vote was scheduled to take
place.
Sovaleni’s office did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. His leadership had survived a previous no-confidence vote
in September 2023.
In recent months, Sovaleni’s tenure was marked by
difficult relations with Tonga’s head of state, King Tupou VI. Although the
sovereign’s predecessor ceded power voluntarily in the 2010 democratic reforms,
Tupou VI retains powers to dissolve parliament, appoint judges and veto laws.
