The three former members of the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) who resigned and headed back to the polls have all been re-elected as members of the Samoa governing Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party for the remainder of this parliamentary term.
The by-elections for the three constituencies of Faleata No.4, Siumu and Va’a-o-Fonoti were held on Friday, 15 September 2023.
The preliminary count on Friday evening showed that the three FAST candidates, Ale Vena Ale, Tu’uu Anasi’i Leota and Mau’u Siaosi Pu’epu’emai leading the electoral race in their respective constituencies.
The final count carried out on Saturday confirmed them as the victors which means they will remain as representatives for their districts for the remainder of this parliamentary term.
For Faleata No.4., Ale collected a total of 953 votes while Ulu Bismarck Crawley who was an independent candidate received a total of 488 votes.
Mau’u led the electoral race for Va’a-o-Fonoti by a large margin with 772 votes while HRPP candidate, Leausa Dr Take Naseri polled a total of 226 votes with Feagaiimealelei Osovale Brown of the CDRP party with only 32 votes.
For the constituency of Siumu, Tu’uu Anasi’i Leota won with a total of 658 votes, just 137 votes ahead of independent candidate, Fa’alogo Kapeli Lafaele, while H.R.P.P. candidate, Tu’uu Amaramo Sialaoa polling a total of 196 votes.
A total of 13 informal votes were counted from the three constituencies.
The Electoral Commissioner Tuiafelolo John Stanley and his staff scrutinised the electoral rolls on Saturday before the final count and he signed off on the official results later on that afternoon.
For the constituency of Faleata No.4., only 63.9 percent of the registered voters casted their votes on Friday.
For Siumu, a total of 60.9 percent of people who registered to vote turned out to vote and as for Va’a-o-Fonoti, a total of 61.7 per cent voted.
Of the 6,187 people who registered to vote, only 3,847 voted which means a total of 2,340 people did not vote on Friday.
The official results for the trio prove that their decision to switch political parties has not changed their constituencies’ support for them.
The final results on Saturday increases the FAST seats in the Legislative Assembly from 32 to 35 and return the former MPs to their seats on the government bench.
Currently there are 53 seats in parliament which means FAST has reached the two third threshold in parliament.
SOURCE: SAMOA OBSERVER/PACNEWS
