Transcript
KALAFI MOALA: Well Akilisi Pohiva's party, their candidates, wo 14 out of the 17 seats in parliament and that is a major victory in the election. Now interestingly enough, the constituency in which Sovaleni ran, he won that handily and that's a constituency where Akilisi Pohiva's party field a candidate, a media leader, somebody that they supported, but Siaosi Sovaleni won handily. Now when you look at things on the surface it seems like getting a prime minister elected, and the government, it's a foregone conclusion - the Democratic Party are going to have it. but Don things are always never the way they look until they are finished - until the election takes place. An so we will have to wait until Monday but the prospect of people walking across from the one side to the other, that's very very high and that's a possibility.
DON WISEMAN: What do you attribute that fluidity to within the party, so soon after the election.
KM: Well the reason being the way the party went about the election, they basically asked candidates if they could run for the party. I would say at least half of the candidates who won were candidates who actually recruited and asked to come in and run in the name of the Party. They were not the Party committed candidates from the time before. So because of that it is very easily assumed that those candidates are pretty loose, that they could actually choose to go one way or the other. But of course the assumption right now is that Pohiva will win the Prime Ministership and it will be his government that will come in. But a lot of us aren't sure until the election is done, because definitely the nobles as well as the three independent candidates who are part of that, there has been a lot of negotiations, a lot of talking and we don't know what all of those talks were about. They were done very secretly and of course the ballot that is going to be on Monday is going to be a secret ballot, it's not th raising of hands, instead writing down on paper. So it's very interesting. There's been so many surprises happening in Tonga, you never know what is going to happen.
DW: Lets look at these two possibilities then. 'Akilisi Pohiva coming back in, can we expect a change in his approach this time round?
KM: No. He is going to be doing more of the same and that was part of his campaign theme and that was 'I need to get back in to finish what I have started' so we are going to be expecting a lot of the same things as before. The other issue is this. There are a lot of lawsuits that are waiting for when this government comes together, whether it is under Pohiva or Sovaleni. They are huge lawsuits. For example, it's the Sports Council on the Pacific Games - they are readying themselves to sue the government of Tonga for cancelling the Games, because they are asking for money and all. There are a lot of other cases that have been left over from the Pohiva government. So there are going to be a lot of suits. If Pohiva becomes the prime minister and forms the government he is going to be busy for the next four years.
DW: And if Siaosi Sovaleni becomes the prime minister what can we expect?
KM: It's not going to change the lawsuits, it is just that he is the prime minister that didn't commit those things, the legal suits are all about. But I think you will expect definitely if he becomes the prime minister new things to take place. He of course is a much younger man. It is expected he will bring into his government a completely young generation. You have to remember that Tevita Lavema'au, who was the former minister of finance dismissed by Pohiva, he is a very close friend of Siaosi, about the same age generation and there are others within the noble ranks, who are young nobles who are highly qualified, a man like Lord Fusitu'a - he's a lawyer and very eloquent, a very sharp member of parliament. So you will find that the Sovuleni government will have new young guys on it and he is very futuristic in his view of where Tonga needs to go. So there will be new things expected, but Pohiva becomes the prime minister I think we are going to get more of the same.
