The Tonga National Centre in Tofoa has been set to become part of the City of Nuku’alofa.
This has been announced by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources last week.
Tofoa, which is part of the Kolomotu’a municipality, is three kilometres away from Nuku’alofa.
The redrawn map which showed the new changes was made last week on February 23.
The Pōhiva government is setting the stage to allow Parliament meetings to be held at the Centre.
The Tongan constitution says Parliament “shall always meet at Nuku’alofa and at no other place except in time of war.”
Temporal Parliament
As Kaniva News reported recently Tongan authorities were looking for somewhere to host the next Parliamentary sessions from next week, after the historic legislative assembly building was destructed during Tropical Cyclone Gita last month.
It followed with an announcement by the Speaker Lord Fakafanua that the Parliament meetings will be held at the Fā’onelua Convention centre
However, the Chief Clerk of the Legislative Assembly said yesterday the meetings will be temporarily relocated to the Tonga National Centre.
“The Legislative Assembly was due to relocate to the Fa’onelua Convention Centre, but the venue has been changed to the Tonga National Centre, where the Legislative Assembly will be housed until a new Legislative Assembly complex is built,” she said.
“Because the location of the Tonga National Centre was not within the Nuku’alofa area, an amendment was recently made to a Government Gazette made in 1984 for its inclusion in the Nuku’alofa boundary.
The Legislative Assembly and the Office of the Legislative Assembly, including the Lord Speaker, Honorable Members of the Assembly and all staff, will be hosted from the Tonga National Center, at Nuku’alofa as of Monday 5 th March 2018.”
The Legislative Assembly will also reconvene on the same day as previously announced.
