A Tonga Electoral Commission banner with the message: "Vote so you can be counted". Photo: Tonga Electoral Commission
The head of the Women and Children Crisis Centre (WCCC) in Nuku'alofa is calling for overseas-based workers to be given the right to vote through the ballot.
Tongans will head to the polls on 20 November to elect their parliamentary representatives.
WCCC's ʻOfa Guttenbeil-Likiliki said approximately 5000 Tongan citizens working Australia and New Zealand are being deprived of their basic human right to vote for their parliamentary representatives.
She said Tonga has run through 14 years since the reform of 2010 and four election cycles without any serious move to amend the Electoral Act, which currently does not allow overseas voting.
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said the workers are overseas working under schemes the Tongan government promotes and they contribute alot back home to support the local economy through their remittances.
"Right now, approximately 5000 Tongan citizens are overseas in Australia and New Zealand; picking fruit, packing meat, laying bricks, caring for elders," she said on a social media post this week.
"They're working under schemes our own government promotes. Some are in the USA. Their hands and sweat keep our families and our economy alive.
"And yet, when it comes to voting, when it comes to having a say in the very future of the country they serve,they have no voice. They are shut out."
ʻOfa Guttenbeil-Likiliki Photo: Facebook / FALE ALEA 'O TONGA
Electoral Commission commissioner and Supervisor of Election Pita Vuki confrmed to RNZ Pacific that only Tongans in the country who have registered to vote will have their say at the poll.
Those away during election time will miss that because the current Electoral Act does not allow for overseas ballot voting.
"They can vote only if they are in the country," Vuki said.
Former Attorney-General Aminiasi Kefu said the law will have to be changed, and that will require having the funding to get that done plus the infrasctructure to enable the process for change.
He believes that would take some time.
"Government has to amend the Electoral Act to allow Tongan residents to vote from overseas through postal voting," Kefu said from Auckland.
"ʻOfaʻs post is aspiring but reality is it will be years if ever. Even with mail in voting, that would require accurate software and reliable posting from where Tongans may be residing at election time.
"I think only Fiji provides mail in voting. Heaps to think about and heaps to debate and resolve.
He said the Attorney-General's Office in Tonga looked at the issue in 2010 but there was no funding or infrastructure to allow for it.
Kefu said things can be changed to allow for overseas ballots but the infrastructure must be safe and secure.
"Yes if there is political will," he said.
"People overseas have to register online and their voting papers are sent to their addresses.
"Otherwise, they can vote online if there is a safe and reliable platform for this.
"Even most of the rich countries donʻt have online voting because the technology is not yet proven safe, secure and reliable."
Therein lies the challenge - having secure systems that would ensure votes get to where they need to go to be counted.
No boldness
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said there are no bold politician to push for the change.
"Endless promises of democratic maturity but still nothing. Not one serious move to amend the Electoral Act," she said.
"Not one bold Member of Parliament standing up to make a change. So I ask, what have our parliamentarians actually done for the people who feed Tonga's economy from thousands of kilometres away?
"Because this isn't just about ballots. This is about belonging. About being told, "You matter when you send money, but not when it comes to voting."
She said that amounts to modern disenfranchisement.
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said it is like telling someone they are part of the family, but only when they are doing the chores.
Current MP and the Minister of Police and Public Enterprises Piveni Piukala said Guttenbeil-Likiliki has raised valid points.
He believes it is something that can be looked at in the new election cycyle, which begins after the upcoming general election on 20 November.
"I am tired of our people being reactive to issue rather than thinking it through. She did raise a valid issue but that should have been raised 10 years ago," Piukala said.
"I will definitely look into this and more for the next cycle."
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said the Tonga Electoral Commission should take the initiative to prepare a policy paper on overseas voting and present it to parliament.
"The Commission doesn't need to wait for Parliament to ask. It can, and should. That's how reform starts."
Overseas systems
According to Guttenbeil-Likiliki, Tonga's neighbours Fiji, Australia and New Zealand allow for overseas ballots, which give their citizens overseas the right to cast their votes.
Samoa allows for online registration of overseas voters, but the current law states registered voters will still have to return and be physically present in the country to vote.
"And here's the painful irony; foreigners living right here in Tonga can walk into their embassies and vote and cast their ballot when it's their country elections," she said.
"But Tongans - citizens of Tonga - temporarily overseas on short term employment schemes, cannot vote for theirs.
"Neither can students studying overseas. Tell me again how that's democracy. Tell me again how Parliament can look our people in the eye - our workers, our mothers, sisters, our brothers, fathers abroad - and say, "we represent you"
"If Fiji can do it, if New Zealand can do it, why can't we?"
She said MPs cannot laim to be representing their constituency members who are away overseas during election time if the voters are not allowed to have their say and decided who they want to represent them in the Legislative Assembly.
She added that "until this changes, our democracy is not whole".
"It's selective and iit's failing the very people it should protect."
Guttenbeil-Likiliki has called on Tongans to raise the issue with their candidates during the campaign period.
"When you go to campaign meetings in your constituenc, please don't just clap and smile," she said.
"Ask them what they're going to do about this massive democratic injustice that silences thousands of Tongans abroad. Because if they have no plan to fix that, they have no right to call themselves representatives of the people ."
Under the Electoral Act 2010, only in person voting at polling stations within Tonga is allowed.
There are no provisions for postal, absentee, or overseas voting and to vote, a person must be physically present in Tonga on election day and registered in a Tongan constituency.
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said she is concerned about seasonal workers in Australia and New Zealand plus students on scholarships or private study.
"These are not people who have migrated permanently or given up their citizenship," she said.
"They're temporary workers, officially deployed by our own government under recognised labour schemes in Australia and New Zealand. Even our students studying overseas.
"The Tongan government already has their names, contracts and travel details, so it's completely possible to set up special voting arrangements through our embassies or Labour Mobility Units."
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said what she is sharing comes from a place of love for Tonga and a deep belief in democratic rights.
Tongans will go to the polls on 20 November to elect 17 Peoples Representatives who will represent them in Parliament for the next four years.
A total of 71 candidates have registered to contest the 17 Peoples' Representatives seats in Parliament.
Local nobles will also elect eight reps, from the list of 18 nobles that have registered for the general election next month.
Prince Kalaniuvalu Fotofili has already retained his seat in the Tonga Legislative Assembly as he is the lone candidate registered for the Niuatoputau and Niuafo'ou islands.
