Dr. 'Aisake Valu Eke was elected prime minister of Tonga on Dec. 24, 2024, defeating Viliami Uasike Latu, the other candidate, by 16 votes to eight in a secret ballot. The election resulted from the shocking resignation of Siaosi Sovaleni Hu’akavameiliku on Dec. 9, pre-empting a discussion and ballot on the second vote of no confidence in his government in the third year of his four-year term.
There are 26 elected members of parliament, 17 peoples’ representatives and nine nobles’ representatives. On Dec. 24, one nobles’ representative, Prince Kalaniuvalu-Fotofili, was absent and a second, Lord Fakafanua, was officiating as speaker. The other seven nobles’ representatives all voted for the new prime minister.
This would have disappointed the outgoing prime minister because, in his resignation speech on Dec. 9, with perfunctory apologies to King Tupou VI and the nobles’ representatives, he made a direct and passionate appeal to Eke to use his experience and knowledge in setting up his new government and not to rely on the nobles’ representatives for support, for it was obvious that they had withdrawn their support for him out of fear of His Majesty.
“I had thought that this country had been granted freedom, but it is obvious that there are still limitations placed on that freedom. So, let me be the sacrificial lamb so that your vote can be held in total freedom,” Hu’akavameiliku said.
Eke is academically well-qualified for the post. He attained his first degree in economics from the University of the South Pacific in the 1980s and his doctorate from the University of Southern Queensland in 2013.
Wadan Narsey, former USP economics professor, told me in 2005 that he regarded Eke as the best of his undergraduate economics students of his year in the 1980s and did his best to lure him into an academic career at USP, to no avail.
He was first elected to the parliament as an independent in 2010 after the constitutional and democratic reforms. Before that, he had been the chief executive officer of the Ministry of Finance and National Planning for over ten years and had remained aloof from the public agitation for reform.
In the parliament, he generally sided with the government, but in 2011 voted with members of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Island—Paati Temokalati ‘a e ‘Otumotu Anga’ofa or PTOA, of which Samuela 'Akilisi Pohiva was leader—against a government bill increasing travel allowances for members of parliament on official sick leave overseas.
In January 2014, Prime Minister Tuivakano, against whose bill he had voted, appointed him to replace Lisiate Akolo as minister for Finance. He won his seat again in November 2014 and was again appointed in January 2015 as minister of finance by then prime minister 'Akilisi Pohiva.
The deputy prime minister in that Cabinet was Siaosi Sovaleni Hu’akavameiliku.
But in February 2017, Eke abstained in the ballot on a vote of no confidence against 'Akilisi Pohiva and the Cabinet of which he was a member and was subsequently turfed by 'Akilisi Pohiva.
The voice of vote of no confidence instigators had accused the latter of nepotism, straining relations with Indonesia by speaking out for West Papua, not following due process and wasting government funds. By abstaining, Eke was effectively giving some level of credence to these accusations.
In an interview he granted to Radio New Zealand in March 2017 after he was sacked, Eke did not elaborate on the reasons for his abstention but said he wasn't
surprised at being dumped.
“No this isn't surprising at all. The only surprise I had was the reasons given for my resignation, because when I abstained, I thought that is not going against the current government, but I just wanted to share those issues I felt was important,”
he said.
“But the decision has been made and there were two factors -- two factors that the prime minister quoted in the initial letter directing me to resign. One is related with the definition of a vote of no confidence and also the differences in the way we have conducted our work. The second factor was the surprise to me, he had never raised any concerns about how we are conducting as far as government is concerned.”
He was also asked about his future in politics and whether one scenario might involve him heading up a government that contained mostly nobles. His response was, “No, not at all. I'm one who actually believes in working together, because that's the only way you can move forward our government. I think the political agenda they used was a very divisive one to segregate the nobles’ and the people’s representatives and it's not healthy. It's not perfect for Tonga socially, economically and politically. So, we have to get unity and move forward, that's the only way we could make a stronger Tonga, going forward.”
King Tupou VI dissolved the parliament in the third year of a four-year term in July 2017. In the subsequent general elections in November of that year, Eke was defeated by the PTOA candidate (who also had 'Akilisi Pohiva’s blessing) for the Tongatapu 5 constituency, Losaline Maasi.
He stayed out of the parliament from 2017 to 2021, undertaking consultancies and running a family remittance business. He regained the Tongatapu 5 constituency in the November 2021 elections and was one of three candidates for the position of prime minister, which was won by Siaosi Sovaleni Hu’akavameiliku. The third candidate was Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa, who had served as prime minister during the 2019-21 period.
Politically, Eke is his own man and he adapts to the situation around him. Consider his abstention in the ballot on the vote of no confidence against Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva and his Cabinet, of which Eke himself was a member, in 2017. Consider too his voting in favor of a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Tuivakano and his Cabinet in 2012, because he was personally against the proposed major increase in member’s allowances when on official sick leave overseas. Despite these shows of independence, he is a royalist at heart, and he favors working with nobles and the king.
As the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum until the 2025 summit in Honiara, there is no doubt that he will pick up where his predecessor left off in relation to safety issues like climate change, regional policing and drug proliferation.
There is, however, a huge question mark over how he would approach fundamental political issues such as support for the inherent right of self-determination of the Kanaks of New Caledonia and of the indigenous people of West Papua.
Try as one may, one cannot discount the specter of King Tupou VI’s reasserting his role in the affairs of state, for which he has constitutional powers. When he withdrew his royal confidence and trust in the previous prime minister and a Cabinet colleague in early 2024, they had to charter a plane to the northernmost island of Niuafo’ou to reaffirm their loyalty and obeisance to him in traditional Tongan style.
After Eke was elected prime minister on Dec. 24, he had to travel to Auckland for an audience with His Majesty. The country eagerly awaits the return of the royal entourage in early February so that Eke can be sworn in as prime minister.
In all previous appointments of Prime Ministers, after their elections by the members of Parliament, their swearing-in was relatively routine and prompt. This time round, His Majesty is playing hard to get, which makes his point -- that he has a crucial role to play in the affairs of state.
This article appeared first on Devpolicy Blog (devpolicy.org), from the Development Policy Center at The Australian National University. Lopeti Senituli is a law practitioner in Tonga and is the immediate past president of the Tonga Law Society. He was a political and media advisor to prime ministers Feleti Vaka’uta Sevele (2006-2010) and Samuela ‘Akilisi Pohiva (2018-2019).
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