The Tonga People's Party (,

abbr. An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing perio ...

PAK) is a

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

founded in 2019 by the new parliamentary majority.

History

In the 2017 general election, the

Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands The Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands () is a political party in Tonga. The party's leader at its foundation was 'Akilisi Pohiva. The party was launched in September 2010, and included several sitting People's Representatives who were p ...

(DPFI) was the only one represented in the Legislative Assembly, obtaining 14 of the 17 seats reserved for the popular vote. For this reason,

ʻAkilisi Pōhiva Samiuela ʻAkilisi Pōhiva (7 April 1941 – 12 September 2019) was a Tongan pro-democracy activist and politician. A key leader of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands (DPFI), he served as the Prime Minister of Tonga from 2014 to his ...

remained in the post of

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, until his death in 2019. The remaining three seats were held by independent candidates. As a result of the deaths of the Head of Government and in anticipation of the election of a new one by the Assembly, the Minister of Finance and National Planning,

Pōhiva Tuʻiʻonetoa Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa (30 June 1951 – 18 March 2023) was a Tongan accountant and politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Tonga from 2019 to 2021. Tu'i'onetoa succeeded Semisi Sika, who had served as acting prime minister, since ...

left the government with three other DPFI deputies, and joined to the parliamentary opposition, announcing the creation of the Tonga People's Party, composed of representatives of the Tongan nobility and independent parliamentarians. On 27 September,

was elected as Prime Minister.

Semisi Sika Semisi Kioa Lafu Sika (born 31 January 1968) is a Tongan politician, businessman, and Member of the Tongan Parliament from 2010 to 2021. He served as acting prime minister in September 2019, following the death of ʻAkilisi Pōhiva. He is curre ...

, the DPFI leader, who until then had held the post on an interim basis, effectively became the

leader of the opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

. Tuʻiʻonetoa formed a government and a parliamentary majority made up of eight commoners and nine elected members of the nobility. These seventeen parliamentarians became the founding members of the TPPI."Tonga People's Party Inc."
Parti populaire On 8 July 2021, during a reception at the Chinese embassy in

Nukuʻalofa Nukualofa ( , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tonga. It is located on the north coast of the island of Tongatapu, in the country's southernmost island group. History First western records of Nukualofa On 10 June 1777, British ...

to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the

Communist Party of China The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CPC), party leader Pohiva Tuʻiʻonetoa stated that the TPPI "learn da lot from the CPC-oriented philosophy." Tuʻiʻonetoa died in March 2023.

2021 election

In the leadup to the 2021 Tongan general election Infrastructure and Tourism Minister

ʻAkosita Lavulavu Akosita Havili Lavulavu (born 1985) is a Tongan politician and former Cabinet Minister. In 2021 she was jailed for fraud. Lavulavu is the wife of former MP Etuate Lavulavu. She was educated at Tonga High School, with tertiary study at Brigham ...

and her husband

ʻEtuate Lavulavu Etuate Lavulavu (born 1958 or 1959) is a Tongan politician and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga for Vavau. He was stripped of his seat in 2016 after being convicted of bribery, precipitating the 2016 Vavau 16 by-election. He gra ...

, who served as party deputy chair, were each convicted of 3 counts of obtaining money by false pretenses and sentenced to six years in prison by the Supreme Court. Tuʻiʻonetoa did not promote the party during the election campaign, and several cabinet ministers announced they would run as independents. He was the only MP elected for the party, but the party planned to name its members after the elections. Tuʻiʻonetoa later complained of being "abandoned" by his former cabinet, who ultimately supported

ʻAisake Eke ʻAisake Valu Eke is a Tongan politician who has served as prime minister of Tonga since 22 January 2025. He also served in the Cabinet as Minister for Finance and National Planning from 2014 to 2017. Education Eke received a degree in economic ...

. In April 2022, Tuʻiʻonetoa was stripped of his seat by the Tongan Supreme Court for bribing a woman's group T$50,000. This left the party with no seats in parliament. However, the conviction was later stayed pending appeal.

Principles and propositions

Defining its fundamental principles as "love, respect, humility and gratitude", the party proposes to reserve certain sectors of activity of the

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...

to Tongan citizens (as opposed to foreigners), return to free education, as well as double salaries of educators, and health personnel. Party leader Pōhiva Tuʻiʻonetoa coined the term "fish theory" to describe the party's ideology, which is based on the

ideology of the Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) frames its ideology as Marxism–Leninism adapted to the historical context of China, often expressing it as socialism with Chinese characteristics. Major ideological contributions of the CCP's leadership are v ...

Electoral performance

Legislative Assembly

References

{{Tongan political parties Political parties established in 2019 Political parties in Tonga 2019 establishments in Tonga