2010 Tongan general election

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.

2010 Tongan general election
26 November 2010
17 of the 26 seats in the Legislative Assembly
  First party Second party
 
Leader Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō ʻAkilisi Pohiva
Party Independents DPFI
Last election 54.09%, 12 seats –
Seats won 14 12
Seat change 2 New
Popular vote 25,873 10,953
Percentage 67.30% 28.49%
Swing 9.79pp New
Prime Minister before election

Feleti Sevele
HRDM

 Elected Prime Minister

Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō
Nonpartisan

The early elections were announced by the new King George Tupou V in July 2008 shortly before being crowned on 1 August 2008, and were preceded by a programme of constitutional reform. For the first time, a majority of the seats (17 out of 26) in the Tongan parliament were elected by universal suffrage, with the remaining nine seats being reserved for members of Tonga's nobility. This marked a major progression away from the 165-year rule of the monarchy towards a fully representative democracy. The Taimi Media Network described it as "Tonga’s first democratically elected Parliament".

The Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands, founded in September 2010 specifically to fight the election and led by veteran pro-democracy campaigner 'Akilisi Pohiva, secured the largest number of seats, with 12 out of the seventeen "people's representative" seats.

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