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Mark Taylor

NEW PRIME MINISTER: Fifteen members of parliament voted for 'Akilisi Pohiva against 11 for his opponent.

A veteran democracy campaigner who one of Tonga's kings once wanted hanged has today been elected the South Pacific kingdom's new prime minister.

Seventy-three-year-old 'Akilisi Pohiva defeated rival Samiu Vaipulu 15 votes to 11 to become the kingdom's first ever democratically elected commoner premier.

The one-time school teacher has spent most of his adult life fighting for change to Tonga's royal and noble controlled political, cultural and land tenure system.

Appropriately he is named after the New Zealand cruiser HMNZS Achilles which was visiting Nuku'alofa at the time of his birth.

Following general elections on November 27, Pohiva replaces Siale'ataongo Tu'ivakano, a noble, who now becomes the speaker.

Pohiva first came to prominence in the 1980s when, as a school teacher, he gave radio talks on democracy in a kingdom under the near absolute rule of then King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV.

He was fired from state radio, but won the first of many legal battles and set up a political party to campaign for the commoner seats of parliament which formed a minority in the Legislative Assembly.

Pohiva first got into parliament in 1987 and while he is seen as a driven character, he can also sound decidedly flaky with revolutionary slogans.

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Tonga democracy MP becomes prime minister