Tonga elects new prime minister after predecessor’s sudden resignation 

Tonga has elected a new leader by secret ballot in parliament, two weeks after the previous prime minister abruptly resigned, following a power struggle with the Pacific nation’s royal family.

Veteran politician ‘Aisake Valu Eke secured 16 votes to his opponent Viliami Latu’s eight 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 minister of finance between 2014 and 2017.

He will be in office for less than a year before the South Pacific island nation of 105,000 people holds its next election in November 2025.

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.

Siaosi Sovaleni resigned as prime minister two weeks ago, after clashing with Tonga’s influential King Tupou VI, leading to speculation about a growing divide between the monarch and his government.

Oxford-educated Sovaleni, who was prime minister from 2021, handed in his resignation just hours before facing a vote of no confidence led by Eke. A statement on the Tongan parliament’s Facebook page said the prime minister had quit “for the good of the country and moving Tonga forward”.

Sovaleni’s tenure was marked by periodic tensions between Tonga’s monarchy and elected lawmakers in a young democracy that saw reforms in 2010 shift power from the royal family and nobles to common citizens.

Tonga overhauled its constitution after pro-democracy protests in 2006 spiralled into riots that left swaths of the capital Nuku’alofa in smoking ruins.

King Tupou VI, Tonga’s head of state, retains significant authority, including the power to dissolve parliament, appoint judges, and veto legislation.

The tourism-dependent Tonga has struggled to rebound from the impact of the COVID-19 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.

The debt-laden island kingdom owes China’s export bank about $130m – almost a third of its gross domestic product – which was loaned to help rebuild after the 2006 riots. Repayments on that loan were scheduled to start spiking this year.