Samoa Shipping Boss Gives 2021 General Elections A Miss

By Martha Taumata Faavae

The Samoa Shipping Services boss and former general elections candidate in  2016 is a man at peace after deciding not to run for the Vaimauga # 3 Electoral Constituency seat next year .

Lautimuia Uelese Vaai admitted wrestling with his political interests for a while until he settled on his final decision not to run.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Shipping Services ran a close race to the winner in his first try as a candidate of the Human Rights Protection Party for the Vaimauga West Constituency.

New electoral boundaries drawn for the 2021 general elections has grouped his home village of Magiagi away from its traditional setting and these were all factored into his final decision.

“Fear of losing my job if I run as an election candidate and is not successful was  not an issue with me personally,” Lautimuia admitted.

“The determining factors on my final decision was my village in relations to the constituency, family and my work.

“ I have a lot of work left to be done to raise the standards and benefits of our seafarers and to access international working contracts.”

While Lautimuia believes he is finally at peace with himself, a few of his fellow  heads of Government Ministries and Corporations are not.

The ‘should I or should I not’ dilemma continues to nag as the deadline to decide draws nearer.

A decision has to be made 6 months before the general elections and all who wish to run will have to resign their executive jobs to do so.

The General Manager of the Electric Power Corporation, Tologata Togia Tile, has already indicated publicly his intentions to resign his job to run for the Falelatai and Samatau Constituency.

Another former election candidate who has admitted an interest in running again but is yet to make a final decision is the CEO of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ulu Bismarck Crawley.

Ulu is currently the go to man in the Government coronavirus prevention task force.