A by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

was held in the Tongatapu 9

Tongatapu 9

Tongatapu 9 is an electoral constituency for the Legislative Assembly in the Kingdom of Tonga. It was established for the November 2010 general election, when the multi-seat regional constituencies for People's Representatives were replaced by single-seat constituencies, electing one representative...

 constituency on 15 September 2011. It was triggered by the death of the incumbent, first time MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Kaveinga Faʻanunu

Kaveinga Faʻanunu

Kaveinga Faʻanunu was a Tongan politicianHaving a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry, he worked for nine years in various "forestry, agroforestry and managerial" positions in the government's forestry department, before going into politics...

, who died of head and neck cancer on 24 July. Under the first past the post system, Faʻanunu had won the newly established sigle-member seat for the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands

Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands

The Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands is a political party in Tonga. The party's leader is 'Akilisi Pohiva....

 in the November 2010 general election

Tongan general election, 2010

Early general elections under a new electoral law were held in Tonga on 25 November 2010. They determined the composition of the 2010 Tongan Legislative Assembly....

, with 34% of the vote, and a majority of 494 votes (18.5%), appearing to make it a relatively safe seat

Safe seat

A safe seat is a seat in a legislative body which is regarded as fully secured, either by a certain political party, the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both...

 for the party (which was a junior partner in Lord Tuʻivakano

Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō

-Descent and naming:Siaosi Kiu Ngalumoetutulu Kaho and his wife Fatafehi-ʻo-Lapaha Liku in 1952 baptised their second child and oldest son as Siale ʻAtaongo Kaho. When his father died in January 1986, Siale ʻAtaongo succeeded him to the traditional Tongan noble title of Tuʻivakanō...

's government).

Candidates

On 18 August, the Tongan government announced that six candidates had been registered for the bye-election, without however specifying what political party any of them might be a member of. They were Konisitutone Simana Kamii, Siaosi ʻEnosi Tuʻipulotu, Viliami Fukofuka, Sevenitini Toumoʻua, ʻEpeli Taufa Kalimani, and Falisi Tupou. The first five had stood unsuccessfully in the November general election - most notably Sevenitini Toumoʻua, who had finished second to Faʻanunu with 15.5% of the vote.

Result

Falisi Tupou

Falisi Tupou

Falisi Tupou is a Tongan journalist and politician.He is a senior editor at Keleʻa, the newspaper of the pro-democracy movement, owned by [[ʻAkilisi Pohiva]]. In April 2007, he was arrested and charged with sedition over an editorial in which he was accused of describing the King as utukovi...

, the candidate of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands, won the seat with 32.8% of the vote.

2010 Result