By Staff Writer
Former Electoral Commissioner, solicitor Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio
The 72 page Commission of Inquiry report of the 2021 general elections, “lacks insight and foresight of the electoral laws and processes in their totality.”
This was a summary reaction, after an ‘initial read’, by the former Commissioner of the Office of the Electoral Commission and now private solicitor, Faimalomatumua Mathew Lemisio.
The report listed findings and recommendations by the 9 member Commission of Inquiry after 10 months of public consultations and review of expert opinions.
Among several noted recommendations is to do away with compulsory voting but to continue with enforced voters registrations.
There is a call for the total number of seats in Parliament be reduced to reflect ‘total population and economic capacity.’
The 10% minimal quota of 6 women in Parliament is to remain but a new method of calculations be considered.
Political parties are needed as well to ‘enforce a set percentage of women candidates for general elections’.
Additional seats for urban and suburban dwellers be increased for the heavily populated Vaimauga and Faleata residential areas.
Faimalomatumua is, however, critical of how the Inquiry may have overlooked the electoral policies and the process to follow.
“ Electoral laws and processes derived from policies that are formulated based on issues and challenges that arise from the past elections,” he assessed.
“I see from the report that there is not much regard to these processes which could’ve assisted the person who wrote the report in seeing the electoral process from an holistic view.”
Faimalomatumua felt that from the “short fall, it is obvious that their accusations of the Electoral Commissioner’s Independence is subjective.”
There were, however, plus sides to the Inquiry that cheered up the former OEC Commissioner.
“I am glad that overseas voting is not allowed, that would have been a disaster for Samoan elections in the future.
“The minimum 10% of women representation in Parliament remains, which is the right thing to do… but the formula they proposed is again subjective, discriminative and contradicts the reasons they gave.”
Faimalomatumua is adamant that the current formula for the women works well, especially after it went through stern scrutiny by the Court following the April General Elections.