The registrar who can’t vote

WESTERN Samoa’s Registrar of

Electors and Voters, Tate Simi, has never voted. He will be 38 in October. As an indigenous Samoan, Simi does not qualify as an Individual Voter to elect two Members of Parlia ment to represent non-Samoans. He has no chiefly title so he cannot vote for any of the 45 seats reserved for matai. That has not stopped him from taking on ma jor roles in government.

Since 1984 he has been Western Samoa’s Commissioner of Labour. Since 1987 he has determined who votes, and in what electoral roll.

“Personally, I refuse to take a title just to vote because there are more impor tant considerations as to why people should become matai," he saicf. “It is not too healthy to have too many matai in a family such as where a father and all his children are chiefs. This creates too many chiefs and not enough Indians.”

Simi: too many chiefs