WHERE TO NEXT : What next for PM Fiame Naomi Mataafa?
By Staff Writer
Will PM Fiame stay on as Government leader or will FAST party chairman Laauli Leuatea Schmidt take over?
Will the Head of State be asked to dissolve Government and call for early general elections on the advice of PM Fiame?
Will the ‘No Confidence’ motion by the HRPP Opposition Party, against the irreconcilable split in the FAST party leadership leading to the Constitutional crisis, matter?
What deciding role is the Speaker likely to play in Parliament as a pro-FAST supporter who signed an anti-leadership letter against the PM?
These are among the smouldering issues expected to leave Parliament in a fiery muddle when it meets next week on Tuesday.
La’auli has already circulated an official letter of notice that he has a 29 majority in the FAST party MPs.
Opposition party leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, however, has asserted he no longer trusts the truth in what Laauli says or do any more .
“We are in a Constitutional Crisis with PM Fiame no longer having the majority to remain as leader,” Tuilaepa told the local media last Friday.
“Our motion of No Confidence, is in keeping with the Constitution where the majority rules.”
Speaker Papali’i Taeu Masepa’u, has accepted the opposition party motion.
He has also confirmed in a written letter to the opposition leader that the motion is to be the first on the order of business in the House.
There is a strong sense of wary mistrust in the opposition though at the neutrality of the Speaker after he too signed on the letter against PM Fiame.
“The only option left for us to take is for the Head of State to dissolve Parliament and return to general elections,” Opposition leader Tuilaepa stressed.
What transpires inside Parliament House next Tuesday will decide what the FAST party political leadership has in store for political stability in Samoa.
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