PERTH, Australia (AP) — Tonga 's parliament elected Aisake Eke as the country's new prime minister on Tuesday in a special session of the house on Christmas Eve, after his predecessor quit earlier this month just ahead of a no-confidence vote by lawmakers.
Eke assumes office less than a year before the South Pacific island nation of 105,000 people is to hold its next election.
A former finance minister, Eke won the secret ballot by 16 votes to 8, defeating the only other candidate, Trade Minister Viliame Latu, who was nominated by the current government. They both addressed parliament for about 20 minutes before the results were announced on Tuesday afternoon.
Tourism-dependent Tonga has struggled to rebound from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, growing threats from climate change and a catastrophic 2022 volcanic eruption and tsunami, which battered beachfront resorts, homes and businesses around the country's 171 islands.
Tonga’s parliament consists of 17 lawmakers elected by the public and nine who are nobles, elected by a group of hereditary chiefs. Two members of parliament were unable to vote.
The resignation of Eke's predecessor Siaosi Sovaleni capped a period of fraught relations between his government and Tonga’s king. Eke, who initiated the motion for the no-confidence vote in Sovaleni late last month, will be officially sworn in at the next parliament session in February.
Eke emerged on Tonga's political scene in 2010 and held several high-profile positions before losing his parliament seat in 2017. As finance minister, he spent time at the World Bank in Washington working on financial reform programs for Tonga.
He returned to parliament in 2021 and was in the running for prime minister but lost out to Sovaleni.
Sovaleni’s tenure was rocked by occasional tensions between Tonga’s monarchy and elected lawmakers in the fledgling democracy after reforms that transferred powers from the royal family and nobles to regular citizens in 2010.
His government also had difficult relations with Tonga’s head of state, King Tupou VI, who retains powers to dissolve parliament, appoint judges and veto laws.
“The former prime minister’s resignation is ultimately the product of a rift with the monarchy,” Riley Duke, a Pacific analyst at the Lowy Institute, told The Associated Press. “That’s a product of a very weak constitution that probably needs reform and there’s just a real lack of clarity about the separation of powers.
“The issue is very complex in Tonga because the monarchy has widespread support. In terms of the new prime minister, I think managing the lack of clarity in the constitution and the monarchy’s interventions in government operations are key challenges.”
In September, Tonga won the bid to host the 2031 Pacific Games, a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. Tonga previously controversially withdrew from hosting the 2019 Pacific Games.