Tongan local body elections give hope for women

Transcript

The election of the first woman district officer in Tongan local body politics has excited advocates about the prospects of more women featuring in future parliaments.

There are no women MPs in the current parliament and there have only been ever been five woman MPs.

The election of Sisifa Fili as a District officer, overseeing six villages in 'Eua, has boosted hopes of this number increasing.

Koro Vaka'uta reports.

The local body elections saw 18 women stand with Sisifa Fili the only successful district officer and Vika Kaufusi being elected Town Officer for Haveluloto.  Ms Fili says her success shows people are starting to realise that development needs the input of women.  But she says her campaign was initially a struggle, particularly when speaking to older people.  

SISIFA FILI:  They don't accept for a woman to come and speak in front and then tell them what to do but I know very well I will succeed because most of the women, they vote for me because they start to see what is happening. The wheel of development. If there is no women in the village, development will not go through.

Ms Fili says she can see mindsets changing further in the future.

SISIFA FILI:  The older ones will fall back and then the youth of today in the future, they (will) come up, because in school they are educated and they will understand what women can do and I know for sure that in the future of course, there will be lots of women in the Parliament of Tonga.  

The Chief Executive of Internal Affairs Ana Bing-Fonua agrees the local body results bode well for the next parliamentary elections in 2018.  Ms Bing-Fonua says the successful campaigns showed the recent workshops and training her ministry has run have been worth it.  She says the number of women standing in the elections was an achievement in itself.

ANA BING-FONUA:  One of our goals was for them to actually overcome the hardest first step which was to actually survive the campaign. So from this onwards, it will build a lot more confidence.  Even though some of them were close but not getting them into the position, for example our candidate for Matamaka in Vava'u, she lost by only two votes.  

Ana Bing-Fonua says a key to changing mindsets about women in politics is involving more youth in the process as well.  But the director for the Civil Society Forum, Siale 'Ilolahia, says the key to changing mindsets will be for Sisifa Fili and Vika Kaufusi to have successful terms in office, putting a lot of pressure on them.

SIALE 'ILOLAHIA:  The kind of pressure that you don't really have it written down on paper but you know that it's floating.  It's there.  Because this is something that has never been, it is a part of our history, everybody will be looking at how they do things. Some of us will be looking at them with hope that they will succeed and some of us are looking at them, when are they going to fall down.    

Which is why Ms 'Ilolahia says her group will be offering as much support as possible.

SIALE 'ILOLAHIA:  These two women need as much support from all of us so that we would make sure that the term that they are having, that we support them to demonstrate to the rest of Tonga that women are able to take on those roles which have always been, that people have been very critical, that Town Officers and District Officers are just jobs for men.

Ana Bing-Fonua says her ministry will also be conducting workshops soon to equip women to run in the 2018 elections.