Samoa elects

Tauese and Eni

By David North

Most Islands space their elections years apart. American Samoa just had two elections - two weeks apart. The new governor will be the sitting Lieutenant Governor, Tauese Sunia, who won by a slim margin. The re elected congressman is Eni Faleomavaega, who won by a more hand some majority. Elected along with Tauese is Togiola Tulafono, the new Lt Governor.

Both serve four-year terms, but the con gressional seat (as on the Mainland) is a

two-year operation.

Why two elections, 14 days apart?

Unlike most Island jurisdictions (and unlike most of the US Mainland), Samoa requires an absolute majority on election day, not the usual first-past-the-post result.

There were five candidates for governor and three for the seat in the House of Representatives. No candidate got 50 per cent plus one vote in the first round on November 5, so a second election, runoffs between the top two candidates for each position, took place two weeks later.

Voting was equally heavy in both elec tions; there were 11,337 votes cast for congressman, for example, on November 5, and 11,192 cast for the same office two weeks later. But some people who had returned to American Samoa to vote on November 5 could not stick around for two weeks to vote again.

American Samoa’s voters put the Mainland voters to shame. About 87 per cent of the Island voters participated in the

gubernatorial and congressional races,

while less than a half of the Mainland vot ers bothered to vote for president.

When reading about US elections, one usually hears a lot about Democrats and Republicans, but Samoa wears its party labels lightly, tending to vote on personal ities and family ties, rather than ideology or party affiliations. The winners are asso ciated with the Democratic Party and at least one of the losers was allied with the

Republicans, but an equally meaningful way to describe the results is to say that the Sunias won and the Colemans lost.

Tauese Sunia is a member of a well connected family with strong political ties in both Samoas; his uncle, Tofilau Eti Alesana, has long been the prime minister of Western Samoa. His brother, Fofo, now the ranking staffer of American Samoa’s legislature, became a hig|t chief and a talk ing chief (orator) at an early age, and was elected by his fellow matai (chiefs) to the territorial senate. Later, Fofo served as the delegate to the US House of Representatives, until a payroll-padding scandal forced him out of the House and, briefly, into a Mainland jail.

Another brother of Tauese, Aitofele Sunia, worked for a while as treasurer in Governor A P Lutali’s cabinet, while a sis ter, Vaoita Savali, ran the territory’s gov ernment-owned broadcasting system. The family is familiar with political power.

Tauese Sunia got 5739 votes in the run off election, while his one remaining opponent, Leala Peter Reid Jr, secured 5449. The two had been separated by a slimmer margin in the first race, with Tauese leading. In the earlier race, there were three other candidates, Lutali (seek ing his third term) and two others.

Leala, a member of the Senate, is nephew to former Governor Peter Tali Coleman, Samoa’s ranking Republican, and life-long foe of Lutali. But Governor Lutali, finding himself out of the running for re-election, endorsed Leala to succeed him, apparently on the grounds that Leala’s position on health care was prefer able to Tauese’s.

Lutali had wanted to leave a legacy of a new hospital, and Leala made that his number one health priority as well. Tauese preferred to concentrate on improving the services of the existing medical system before building a new structure. While the endorsement of the third candidate (Lutali in this case) is often a key to victory in

runoff elections, it did not work for Leala. In the other race, Faleomavaega had tried to avoid a runoff by calling for a recount. One was mounted quickly and showed the congressman just 36 votes shy of a majority, hence he had to face the second race against runner-up Gun Hannemann, a former member of the Fono (and brother to Muffi Hannemann, Harvard grad and one-time Democratic candidate for Congress in Hawaii).

While the third candidate for gover nor, Lutali, called for the election of Tauese, the third candidate for Congress, Amata Coleman Radewagen, did not endorse either of the two other candi

dates. Radewagen improved her standing

from a run two years ago against Faleomavaega, but Hannemann nosed her out for second place. (No woman, it should be noted, has ever won a territory wide election in American Samoa.) Radewagen did come around to the congressman’s office to see the incum bent the day after the election, but missed him; he was probably out campaigning.

The fact that she did not endorse Hannemann hurt his long-shot hopes of upsetting the congressman. Radewagen is daughter to former Governor Coleman, cousin to Leala, and, in her own right, a member of the Republican National Committee and Washington representa tive for Samoa’s publicly owned utility company. When the votes were counted after the second election, Faleomavaega had 6321 to 4871 for Hannemann. While it may be better to win than to lose, both the winners face difficult tasks in the years ahead.

Faleomavaega, a staunch Democrat, will have to work with the Republican majority in the US House of Representatives, a difficult task for any Democrat and particularly difficult for one with limited voting rights. (The terri torial delegates vote in committees and caucuses, but not on the floor). Tauese Sunia will either have to do something that neither Coleman nor Lutali would do - cut the size of the Island government, which can only be done by pushing vot ers out of their jobs - or find some other way out of the unremitting financial problems that face American Samoa. It will be a challenge for both of them. ■