Tonga’s Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva has been elected Tonga Rugby Union (TRU) president.
The election last week came after the national body’s constitution was changed to allow the Prime Minister of the country to automatically be elected for the post.
Meanwhile the CEO of the board will call a meeting on May 25 to elect the chairperson of the organisation, TRU interim chairman and CEO, Feʻao Vunipola said.
He said the chairmanship must be elected on the ground the person who will be picked must meet what World Rugby requires for the post.
Vunipola welcomed the election of the Prime Minister and said the government was one of the main largest sponsors of Tonga’s rugby.
He said a number of problems affected TRU including “poor governance, lack of transparency and credibility so it’s a no brainer to have the backing of our Govt”.
“Our debilitating debts would have bankrupted us but for our Govt to bail us out. In fact TRU were in receivership since October 2015″, Vunipola said.
Our government provided stability and encouraged World Rugby to continue their investment in Tonga, he said.
The presidency and chairmanship were held by ʻEpeli Taione before he resigned last year.
