By Staff Writer
HUGE WINNERS : HRPP Opposition leader Tuilaepa with party secretary Lealailepule celebrate with legal team of Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio and Fuimaono Sefo Ainu’u after their crushing win.
The opposition Human Rights Protection Party leader and former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi is on his way back to Parliament.
Following right behind him is the Party Secretary MP Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi.
A Supreme Court ruling handed down today, Tuesday 4 July 2023, quashed the 2-year Parliament suspension order that kept them out of House sessions since last year.
Chief Justice Perese and Justice Clarke voided the Legislative Assembly’s suspension order for ‘breach of article 44(1) of the Constitution and the framework Samoa’s Constitution of responsible and representative Government.’
The ruling also directed the “’Applicants are entitled to be paid their remuneration and allowances that were withheld on account of the terms of the suspension.’
Parliament Standing Order 187(7)(iii) – 187(7)(v) that was also quoted in the Suspension Order was also voided by the ruling as in ‘breach of article 13 of the Constitution.’