The Tongan monarchy and the constitution: political reform in a traditional context

Abstract

The subjects of this paper are the Kingdom of Tonga,1 its monarchy, its constitution, its traditional values and political reform. It is now well known that the government and Legislative Assembly of Tonga (the Assembly) made a momentous decision four years ago in 2010, when it amended the Constitution of Tonga (the Constitution) to shift most of the executive powers of the state from the monarch to a cabinet of elected leaders. For the firsttime in Tonga’s history, the government was then elected. Four years later, on 27 November 2014, that government was called to account when Tongans went to the polls again to elect a second one.