George Tupou V July 2008, a "Taumafa Kava" (Royal Kava Ring ceremony) was held on Malaʻe Pangai, the open space to the east of the Royal Palace. During the ceremony, Tupou V sat on a pile of handwoven "pandanus" mats in an open pavilion facing the sea, while more than 200 Tongan nobles and chiefs dressed in woven skirts and sea shells circled him. He wore the traditional Tongan "ta'ovala" (woven mat skirt) and a garland of flowers. During this ceremony, Tupou V was formally recognised as the "Tuʻi Kanokupolu", and the rightful descendent of King George Tupou I, who united Tonga in
Falisi Tupou the Tongatapu 9 seat in the Legislative Assembly. The seat had been won in the November 2010 general election by DPFI candidate Kaveinga Faʻanunu, who had died of cancer seven months later. Tupou retained the seat for the party, winning 32.8% of the vote and seeing off the other five candidates with a comfortable margin. Falisi Tupou Falisi Tupou is a Tongan journalist and politician. He is a senior editor at "Keleʻa", the newspaper of the pro-democracy movement, owned by ʻAkilisi Pohiva. In April 2007, he was arrested and charged with sedition over an editorial in which he was accused