This Press Release responds to the article published in the Samoa Observer newspaper on Tuesday
4 May 2021 (pp 4 & 5) entitled:
‘Lawyer calls for review of Samoa election’.
The New Zealand/Samoan lawyer Josefina Fuimaono-Sapolu based in New Zealand is well advised to read
up on the history of Samoa and understand that since 1962, Samoa has been an independent, self-governing,
sovereign nation. This fact was hard-won and a marked sign of Samoa’s good governance and leadership
in the region as the first Pacific Island nation to fight for and become independent of colonial control. The
legacy of Samoa’s independence from New Zealand is clearly recorded in the Western Samoa Act 1961
(“the Act”) and Constitution of the Independent State of Samoa 1960. Section 3 of the Act states that “on
and after Independence Day [1 January 1962] Her Majesty in right of New Zealand shall have no
jurisdiction over the Independent State of Western Samoa”. Section 4 further provides that “No Act of the
Parliament of New Zealand passed on or after Independence Day or passed before Independence Day and
coming into force on or after Independence Day shall be in force in Western Samoa”. The historical
flourishing and respectable relationship between Samoa and New Zealand in all areas is without question,
but there is no jurisdiction to review the conduct of Samoa’s Elections, nor are there any grounds to allow
external scrutiny of the internal electoral affairs of a Sovereign nation. Needless to say, this works also the
other way around, in that Samoa even if called by a citizen of another country like Ms Sapolu to review the
conduct of the general elections of New Zealand or another sovereign country, will not have any such
jurisdiction to conduct such a review.
The suggestion therefore, via the said lawyer’s petition that the election processes of a sovereign and
independent country like Samoa, should be reviewed by the Parliament of another independent country,
demonstrates a lack of understanding as to the sovereignty of independent countries and of Samoa’s
Electoral laws including the intention of Article 44(1A) of the Constitution of the Independent State of
Samoa.