Proud family and friends showered “sworn in” Members of Parliament with ei celebrating the 18th Parliament sitting at Parliament House yesterday afternoon.

For the first time MP Teokotai James Herman from the constituency of Vaipae-Tautu on Aitutaki, “being sworn in is about what you can do for the betterment of your constituency and the betterment of the Cook Islands”.

“I’m looking forward to some decent debates and decent projects for the outer islands and for my constituency,” Herman said.

“We have earmarked a couple of projects, there’s so many things to do but we’ve decided to focus on a couple and hope to achieve that in stages within four years, and we think we can do it and being in Government helps a lot. We should be able to get direct assistance, I hope.”

Herman said being in Parliament, “it’s all about working together and making sure we get the projects going, that’s my aim – to achieve what we have set out to do”.

He won the Vaipae-Tautu seat in the 2022 general election with 154 votes against Democratic Party candidate Teinakore Manuela 109 and Independent candidate Teariki George 58.

• Melina Etches