Tongatapu No. 4 People’s Representative Mateni Tapueluelu will be called to the Supreme Court to answer a civil challenge that might result in him losing his seat, reports Matangi Tonga.
Last Friday, the Office of the Attorney General filed a civil action in the Supreme Court to declare Tapueluelu's nomination as a candidate unlawful because he had an alleged outstanding debt on the date of his nomination for the General Election in 2014.
The Acting Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions ‘Aminiasi Kefu said the civil action on October 23, 2014, and his subsequent election on November 27, 2014 as a People’s Representative for Tongatapu 4 electoral constituency, was unlawful and invalid.
The civil action claimed that his nomination and election was in breach of Clause 65 of the Constitution.
The Attorney General claims when Tapueluelu submitted his nomination as a candidate on October 23, 2014, he had an outstanding legal cost of TOP$14,500 (approx US$6,800), which he had not paid to William Clive Edwards for a defamation case.
As a result of the outstanding legal costs owed to Edwards, Tapueluelu’s nomination should have been disqualified.
Kefu said two other applications were also filed with the civil action for administrative and interim orders.
One application was for an urgent hearing of the civil action due to the importance of the civil action made under the Constitution. The other for an order that the salary or remuneration benefits paid to him as the People’s Representative for the Tongatapu 4 electoral constituency be paid into the court or it be withheld by the Crown until this action is finally determined by the courts, he said.
Parties now wait on the Supreme Court on directions for a date on when the case will be first called in the Supreme Court.