Samoas election crisis will not be wrapping up this week, despite a promise from a court ruling delivered last week.
At the end of last month, the countrys highest court bench ruled that, after weeks of delays, Parliament had to sit for the first time by Monday, July 5, and that anyone getting in the way would face charges.
But on Sunday, Samoas head of state delivered an unexpected late-night announcement instead, scheduling the first sitting for August 02, about 17 weeks after the general election, saying if the sitting could not happen by then I will consider other options available to me.
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In the statement, Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II said the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to demand Parliament meet, and that only I have the powers to appoint a time and place for the meeting of the Legislative Assembly.
He accused the court of having flagrant disregard and disrespect for his position, and of usurping his power, and prayed it would not happen again.
Sualauvi, himself a lawyer by profession, said he wants another month before parliament sits in order to resolve dozens of outstanding election petitions over allegations of bribery, and for by-elections to seat members in newly vacant seats.
He also insists that, despite court clarification, there is no clarity over how many seats this 17th Legislative Assembly should be made up of.
In Samoa, the outgoing prime minister is still refusing to relinquish power despite the courts confirming Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s narrow election victory last month.
After the April 9 election, the 51 seat parliament was to have five women members.
After much contention, the Supreme Court decided a constitutional provision to ensure female representation should be activated, and that another woman should be added to fill 10 per cent of seats.
In its decision, the court said this should happen after those outstanding court petitions and by-elections, in case another woman wins a seat naturally through the by-election process and that parliament should meet in the meantime. Sualauvi disagrees, saying parliament should wait.
Last week, the Supreme Court attempted to close the book on Samoas election crisis, now entering its fourth month.
It ruled while an ad-hoc swearing in conducted by the tentative winners of the election, the Faatuatua i le Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) Party was unlawful and conducted illegally, the current gridlock had to come to an end.
Caretaker Prime Minister and leader of the incumbent party the Human Rights Protection Party, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi insists his role as caretaker has not come to an end, and in May went as far as calling his opposition treasonous for thinking they had won the election.
His Attorney-General went to court to have the ad-hoc swearing in under a tent outside parliament thrown out, and last Monday the court finally made its decision.
It said because the Head of State was not present, the swearing-in could not be considered lawfully done.
Instead, it ordered the two parties and all the administrative officers involved to convene parliament within seven days of that ruling, or find themselves in contempt of court.
Samoa’s caretaker Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and FAST Party leader Fiame Naomi Mata’afa both believe they are the next Prime Minister of Samoa.
If parliament doesnt sit in seven days, the court warned, it will reconsider whether the tent-session should count after all, making the 26 FAST members sworn-in that day lawful members of parliament.
That will raise questions over the other 24 members of parliament that did not attend that session, from HRPP.
In his statement, Sualauvi said he interpreted the courts threat of contempt of court on anyone who frustrates the seven-day deadline as a threat against his powers.
By ordering that failure to comply with its decision will be tantamount to contempt of Court, the Parliament and the Head of State, I read it as a direct threat to the legal authority, powers and integrity of both the Office of the Head of State, and that of the Parliament of the Independent State of Samoa, he said.
I pray, that such usurping of the said powers of the Head of State shall not happen again.
In response, FAST Party leader Fiame Naomi Mataafa told the Samoa Observer: I’m not going to give you an answer to this silly proclamation.
The issue is before the court and we are waiting for them to see what’s going to happen next.
