The parliament would be responsible for much of the day-to-day running of the country and the king would remain the head of state and retain the right to veto laws, decree martial law, and dissolve parliament.
In November , the citizens of Tonga voted for their first democratically elected parliament, making Tonga a constitutional monarchy. Embed from Getty Images. The video below shows the performance and has some views of the king and the church.
He was succeeded by his brother King Tupou VI. King George Tupou V had undergone surgery in September to remove a kidney following the discovery of a tumor and it is believed his death was caused by cancer. The crown descends according to male-preference cognatic primogeniture — a female can succeed if she has no living brothers and no deceased brothers who left surviving legitimate descendants. However, the king wanted to marry Lavinia Veiongo who was not from the upper class and so he asked the Council of Chiefs to choose between the two women.
The chiefs allowed the marriage to Lavinia to take place. The royal family of Tonga. Z: Auckland University Press, pp. OCLC: Business, previously signed with a verbal contract, began to move towards contracts and receipts. A western-style middle class formed. George II succeeded his great-grandfather, and Tonga became a British protectorate. Under the treaty with Great Britain, Tonga agreed to conduct all foreign affairs through a British consul; through this relationship the Westminster model of Government was observed, and Tongan parliament followed this model.
The power of the chiefs was reduced, but the monarch remained sovereign, the highest political power in the country, like the British monarchy had been before the English Civil War. Tupou V became king in September , succeeding his late father, but his coronation was postponed after rioting over political reform left eight people dead and the centre of the capital, Nuku'alofa, virtually razed to the ground.
The timing of the announcement, along with parliamentary reform promised for , should help mollify pro-democracy campaigners who had threatened to embarrass Tonga during the coronation.
In announcing the changes, the lord chamberlain's office said the Oxford and Sandhurst-educated monarch sees himself as "an architect of change" in the Polynesian kingdom, which is a former British protectorate. He prefers a lavish Western-style military uniform to conventional Polynesian dress and he is already planning his own coronation.
Like their dad, the Crown Prince and his sister, Princess Pilolevu, are both fabulously wealthy. Tonga is an archipelago of scattered islands about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand.
The Kingdom relies heavily on foreign aid and remittances from citizens working abroad. The deal eventually fell through but only after a huge public outcry. Negotiations had taken place without any public debate or consultation. This was not the first time the Royal Family had tried to line their own pockets.
In the s the King peddled Tongan passports, mostly to Asian customers. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were among the buyers. The money all but disappeared and Bogdonoff was tried for fraud, negligence and conspiracy.
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