The director of Tonga's Constitutional and Electoral Commission says there is a lot of public interest in its work as the country discusses how much reform should be enacted ahead of next year's planned early general election.
The Commission commenced its work early last month after it came into force last July under the Constitutional and Electoral Act 2008.
The Commission's mandate is to consider aspects of constitutional and electoral reform in Tonga and make recommendations by November for Parliament to decide whether to approve or not.
The director, Rosamond Bing, says the Commission is currently inviting public submissions on issues including the roles of the King, Privy Council and Government, as well as the composition of the Legislative Assembly.
"To date we haven't received any submissions yet. A lot of enquiries, a lot of interest but no submissions yet. We anticipate that there may be a flood of submissions towArds the end of the deadline, or on the date of the deadline. So that is the 23rd of February."
