By Martha Taumata Faavae
The gravitational pull at a political career for senior public servants continued last week with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Assistant CEO Aiolupotea Toni Leleisi’uao, joining the 2021 general elections run.
Aiolupotea registered on Tuesday as a Human Rights Protection Party, HRPP, candidate for the Palauli East constituency in Savaii.
But there is an awkward catch for his first time tilt into politics. His older brother, Tuifa’asisina Risati Leleisi’uao, is the incumbent MP for the constituency.
“My intentions are not to put down my brother and we also talked out my aspirations to run before I submitted my name to the constituency as a candidate,” Aiolupotea explained to Newsline Samoa.
He said they reached an amicable understanding and there are no bad feelings at both of them running.
Aiolupotea, however, had to wait on a decision from their home village of Vailoa, Palauli if they would endorse his candidacy.
“By being here to register my nomination as candidate for the Government party confirms their support and I’ m grateful for their trust in myself
Vailoa is one of three villages in the electoral constituency. The others are Faala and Vaitoomuli and also entitled to nominate a candidate which remains to be seen.
Aiolupotea is the current division head of livestock for MAF, in a career of more than 10 years so far in the public service.
“My decision to run is from a strong calling I feel in me and I believe that I have much to offer with my understanding of agriculture and the many opportunities for developments that will benefit everyone,” the MAF Assistance CEO promised.
“The coronavirus pandemic has forced the attention back to the development of the land with the damages to our tourism industry and long-term effects on remittances as our main sources of revenues.”
The election candidate did admit that his constituency is blessed with a selection of natural attractions that have to be fully developed to benefit from the tourism industry in the future.
His long-term vision is to develop the natural resources in the constituency and market them as attractions to draw in the tourists and generate local revenue to prosper without having to depend on remittances.
Aiolupotea is fully behind the HRPP rallying call that developments speak louder than words. His election platform is to let the promise of what he has to offer for development do the talking and the convincing for the electors to make their choice.
“I’m Catholic and I enjoy spending time with our village communities and with youth sports.”
He also confirmed that it was the decision of the village elders that he should run as a candidate for the Government party and he respects their wish.