Sewing up Samoan campaign

THE government of Tofilau Eti Alesana has been busy the past four months.

It has managed to squeeze in a new legislation giving all West Samoan adults the right to vote. It has announced a national holiday in May every year to honour women. It has introduced an old age pension of WS$5O for those 65 years and over. It has promised more projects

aimed at develop

ing youth pro

grammes. And it has increased the minimum wage to WSSI an hour.

In short, Tofilau’s govern ing Human Rights Protection Party has the voters well wrap ped up: the young, the old and the women.

Tofilau goes into the April 5 general election

with much confidence. While his country of nearly 120,000 people is still listed by the United Nations as a Least Developed Nation, Tofilau has managed to reduce inflation from 30 per cent 10 years ago to 15 per cent. Foreign reserves have grown to WSSIS3 million and economic growth is expected to range from 1 to 2 per cent this year. Cyclone Ofa, which devastated the country in February last year, takes some of the blame for the country’s economic difficulties.

Banking on these good points, Tofilau’s party is confident of returning to power next month.

“The Opposition is in a difficult position,” said a Samoan political ana lyst. “As an opposition they can only be onlookers while the Government is im

plementing things.”

Sixty thousand voters are expected to be registered when voter registrations close on the 16th of this month. It will be the first election open to all adults 21 years old or older.

Previously elections were restricted to the 20,000 malai (chiefs) until a plebiscite in October demanded universal suffrage.

But while all adults can now vote, the 45 places reserved for indigenous Samoans in the 47-seat parliament are still only for the chiefs. The other two, always elected by universal suffrage, go to citizens of non-Samoan ancestries.

The election is between Tofilau’s

governing Human Rights Protection

Party and the Opposition Samoa Na

tional Development Party of former Prime Minister Tupua Tamasese. The Western Samoan Fono (Parliament) was dissolved on February 19 to prepare for the election.

Western Samoans living in New Zea land are providing an interesting feature to this election. They are now pushing for the right to vote on the grounds they provide nearly half Western Samoa’s

national budget through remittance sent from New Zealand to families back home.

To vote they must be registered by the 16th of this month and they must be in Western Samoa on election day. The law does not allow for overseas voters voting from outside the country.

Airlines are considering scheduling extra flights to cope with the expected exodus of Western Samoans flying home for the general election. Wellington High Commissioner Lupematasila Aumua loane said his office will launch a publicity campaign to encourage all Western Samoans eligible for the vote to register on the new electoral roll.

He said 45,000 of the 100,000 New Zealand-resident Western Samoans are Samoa-born and about 30,000 of those are eligible to vote on April 5.

However, he pointed out they must be registered and must travel to Western Samoa to cast their vote.

“There is much interest in this election among the Samoan communities here,” he said. “They are always in close touch with what is happening at home.”

National flag-carrier Polynesian Air

lines will offer a special voters’ fare for election travellers. An Air New Zealand spokesman said extra services would be scheduled to cope with demand.

New Zealand manager Kirk Garcia told New Zealand Press Association last month that extra flights will be scheduled to handle any demand in the weeks before the election. □

Wrapping up the voters: Tofilau Eti Alesana and his wife