Early election sought in Western Samoa

Press, 19 December 1985, Page 6

Early election sought in Western Samoa

PA Wellington The Prime Minister of Western Samoa, Tofilau Eti Alesana, has asked the country’s head of State to call an early General Election after its Parliament rejected the proposed 1986 budget yesterday. Government officials and diplomats said that the Budget and five other financial measures had been defeated by 27 votes to 19 in the Fono (Parliament) after supporters of Tofilau Eti’s Human Rights Protection Party deserted it to support two former Prime Ministers, Vaai Kolone and Tupuola Efi.

They said that there was no debate about the measures.

“The vote was about power, not economics,” one said.

The defeat does not automatically mean the fall of

the Government, officials said, because under the Samoan constitution issues of confidence must be declared by the Prime Minister before the vote is taken.

They said that the constitution left the head of State, Malietoa Tanumafili, with seven days to decide whether to call a new election or instruct Tofilau Eti to try again. The absence of a formal vote of no-confidence meant Vaai Kolone could not be appointed without an election, diplomats said. Yesterday’s vote came as the Fono sat for the first time since July, when Tofilau Eti sought unsuccessfully to have an election called after Vaai Kolone failed to move a motion of no confidence in the minority Government. Tofilau Eti had a landslide election win in Febru-

ary. His supporters won 31 of the Fono’s 47 seats and he was elected unopposed as Prime Minister in a separate vote by members of Parliament. Diplomats said that the Prime Minister yesterday told the Fono that he had been betrayed by his former colleagues and that he believed he would win another election. They said that there was no sign that the Government had lost the support of Samoa’s 160,060 people. Tofilau Eti and his Finance Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele, are credited with instituting International Monetary Fund policies which rescued Samoa’s timber, copra and coffeebased economy from near bankruptcy two years ago to the point where it is now held up as an example of a model small island economy.