Samoa's Parliament will convene next week ^Featured

It comes at the 11th hour as Samoa's constitution provides that the first sitting of parliament be within 45 days of the general election.

Monday is the 45th day after the 9 April ballot.

The emergent Fa'atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party has a tenuous one seat majority as it heads into Samoa's 17th parliament, following a court case on Monday which denied the caretaker Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) government a 26-seat each stalemate.

A continued electoral impasse at the next sitting of parliament would likely force the Head of State to declare fresh elections.

Meanwhile, following Monday's Supreme Court decision, the Office of the Electoral Commission and the HRPP sought a court order to stay the execution of its ruling in which an unelected sixth women's seat was declared void.

The motion, to prevent the HRPP candidate Ali'imalemanu Alofa Tu'uau's appointed seat from being voided, was rejected today in the Court of Appeal, and she will not be able to sit in parliament when it convenes.

The HRPP will now enter Samoa's next parliamentary term as the minority, after 40 years in Government.

It's expected the caretaker prime minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi will hand over the reins of the country after nearly 23 years at the helm.

When the parliament convenes at 9:30 Monday morning, each party will declare their seats and a government can then be formed once a majority is affirmed.

Meanwhile, the HRPP appeal against the removal of Ali'imalemanu as an additional (6th woman) member is pending before the Appellant Court, and if successful, would mean a return to the 26-all seat deadlock between parties.

A ruling on this appeal is not expected until at least July.

Also pending before the courts are the election petitions which are due to be be heard in July or August.

- RNZI