Tonga’s Fisheries Minister said this week he was not trying to buy votes by giving out fish to old people.
The Hon Sangstar Saulala told Parliament last week he was just trying to help people.
He said he helped the needy people in his constituency “to share what he had".
A source told Kaniva News her aunty in the village of Ha’ateiho received a plastic bag of four fish given by a man who arrived by van on June 15 and said they were from Hon Saulala.
Tevita Vaingalo, the town officer of Ha’ateiho told Kele’a newspaper the minister asked him for a list of elderly people in the village. There were 60 names on the list.
Ha’ateiho is one of four villages in the constituency of Tongatapu Seven where fish were handed out on June 15 and 22.
The gift to the elderly was seen by many as an attempt to woo voters in the area, especially the families and relatives of the elderly.
However, Tonga’s next parliamentary election will not be held until 2014 and online critics have asked why he would be distributing fish a year before voting took place.
Hon Saulala’s comments made after Democratic Party Leader 'Akilisi Pohiva told the House last week about a letter he received from a man in Pangaimotu Vava’u complaining that the last election for town and district officers was won by a candidate who had butchered a hog and distributed the meat among the villagers during the election.
Hon Saulala was elected to Parliament in 2010 after an aggressive campaign by the Democratic Party.
Voters in Tongatapu 7 believed he had signed a memorandum with the Party and that he would be a loyal member.
In July 2012 Hon Saulala crossed the floor to rescue the noble’s party and its leader Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakano after a No Confidence motion by the Democratic Party.
Kaniva News was unable to obtain a comment from Hon Saulala.
