Niuas is an electoral constituency which sends one representative to the Legislative Assembly of Tonga. It covers the islands of Niuafoʻou and Niuatoputapu. Since its inception in 1875, the Assembly has consisted in representatives of the people and in members of the nobility. Following constitutional reforms in 2010, designed to strengthen democracy in the kingdom, the nobility elect nine representatives, while the people elect seventeen. The nobles' constituency in the Niuas thus overlaps with a peoples' constituency, which also elects a single representative. Members of the nobility whose title is attached to lands in the constituency may vote there, and be elected as the constituency's representative. Nobles do not formally stand as candidates, however, and never belong to any political party. Following the 2010 electoral reforms, any person holding more than one title, corresponding to lands in several constituencies, may only vote in one constituency. The titles corresponding to the Niuas are Fotofili, Fusituʻa, Maʻatu and Tangipa, meaning that the constituency may have up to four voters. At present, the holder of the title of Fotofili also holds the title of Kalaniuvalu, which entitles him to vote in the Tongatapu constituency. The Maʻatu title is vacant. Thus, the constituency actually consists in between two and three voters.
History, recent elections and members
The constituency as such did not exist for the first Assembly in 1875. At that time, there were twenty nobles in all the kingdom, and they all sat in the Assembly, along with twenty elected peoples' representatives; the islands of Niuafoʻou and Niuatoputapu were each associated with a title, and therefore each had a noble representing them. As the number of titles of nobility was increased by successive monarchs, a constitutional amendment in 1914 provided that the nobles would henceforth elect seven among them to represent them; the number of peoples' representatives was also decreased to seven. The nobles' constituency of Niuas, as such, may have been established at this time. Records of elections are sparse. In the 1996 general election, the Honourable Fusituʻa was elected; there is no further information. Nor is there any information for the 1999, 2002 or 2005 general election results. In the 2008 election, three votes were cast in the Niuas: two for Lord Tangipa, and one for Lord Fotofili; the former was thus duly elected. In the 2010 election, specific voting figures were not reported, but Lord Fusituʻa was elected with a single vote, which suggests that only one vote was cast. This may be explained by Lord Fotofili opting to vote in Tongatapu, and Lord Fusituʻa himself not casting a vote, so that Lord Tangipa's lone vote could elect him. Lord Fusituʻa died on 24 April 2014, leading to a by-election on 21 May. His son, the new Lord Fusituʻa, was elected unanimously with two votes to take his seat.
