Samoa Votes For More Of The Same

The official and final vote count had to be completed at the time of writing, but HRPP has an unassailable lead and the possibility of acquiring more than a two thirds majority in parliament with a number of independents already wanting to join. The resounding victory stunned many observers.

As it turned out, SDUP lost three of its senior people and Samoa Party failed to win a seat despite receiving five percent of the popular vote. HRPP leader and prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was returned unopposed in his constituency, and all but two of the cabinet ministers also came back.

Electoral petitions for breaches of the electoral laws are expected to be filed for a number of electorates. This is a regular part of the Samoan electoral process because of the fine line between meeting traditional obligations, and buying votes, and many crossing that line. But the results will have little bearing on the outcome of the polls.

The win makes HRPP the party that has held political office the longest, 23 years to be exact, in the region. It had built its re-election campaign on a record of prudent economic management and of transforming Samoa from just another Pacific backwater, into one of the better performing economies, a fact that repeatedly referred to by the donor community.

The one sided win means another five years of HRPP government. And that has left many people wondering about the future of parliamentary democracy in the country, and whether a Westminster styled party system is viable where party affiliation is only one of the many factors that influence the way people vote. The others are loyalty to family and village, the power of money, and the personal qualities of the candidates themselves. Many of the opposition candidates for example had very little appeal to the voters.

As the party of government in the last 23 years, anyone with political ambitions inevitably joins the HRPP. Party politics are a novelty still in Samoa with no ideological distinctions between competing groups, only a shared desire for office. And as the party of government for so long, HRPP rule has become woven into almost every facet of Samoan life, with an extensive network of party cadres and workers and village leaders who, in one way or another, owe their positions to HRPP patronage. This network has become an unbeatable vote catcher at election time.

The win further consolidates party leader Tuilaepa S Malielegaoi's position at the top. After almost ten years as prime minister, and as immediate past chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum, Tuilaepa has acquired a profile beyond Samoa, and is seen as one of the senior leaders in the region. Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni has already been confirmed in the number two spot, and is expected to retain the finance portfolio as well.

The challenge now is to appoint cabinet and form the new government, and at the same time keep the large number of HRPP members happy. There are only so many offices to go around after all.

With its numbers reduced to ten, less than a third of parliamentary seats, the opposition SDUP will be hard pressed to mount a credible opposition during the next five years.

Before the polls, Samoa had received mention in the U.S. State Department Human Rights report for the Pacific, and in a report by the Inter Parliamentary Union [IPU] in Geneva because of restrictive practices employed by the ruling HRPP against the Opposition. Both reports were strongly rejected by Prime Minister Tuilaepa.

With a virtual HRPP monopoly on political power, and with the direction political development in Samoa has taken in the last 20 years, many continue to express fears about the future of party politics, if not parliamentary democracy itself in Samoa.