By Martha Taumata Faavae
The powerful traditional authority of village chiefs and orators will keep a close election watch together with the very limited police force.
The retiring Minister of Women and Social Development, Tuitama Dr. Talalelei Tuitama confirmed early meetings with village leaders calling for their support.
The Minister is worried by pre-election tensions leading up to the April 2021 General Election, fueled by very aggressive smear campaign tactics by opposition parties in the villages.
The worst pre-election provocation of possible violence is the uncensored humiliation on social media of political leaders and their respective constituencies that has already flared into threatening protests from some village leaders.
“These are unfamiliar experiences compared to our general elections in the past,” Minister Tuitama is left to worry.
“Party politics is not new it is the use of FACEBOOK or social media creating angry divisions in the country that threatens peace and stability of the general elections.
“There are no boundaries of common decency and cultural respect for the dignity of leadership that is sacred in our Samoan culture.
“Reckless statements are made freely without any care or regard for the defamatory damages they have on the people named, families and home villages.”
The Minister’s re-assuring hopes of keeping a tight leash on any outbreak of election violence rests on the ‘matai’ and police powers working together.
“Chiefs and orators know their own village people better than the police so they are the best enforcers of any outbreaks of election conflicts in their own community.”
The Minister of Police, Tialavea John Hunt, is aware of the considerable authority the ‘matai’ wields in the villages.
“We have a police of only 700 and that is nowhere near enough to keep law and order in any situation where they are needed at the national scale,” Police Minister Tialavea fully admitted in an earlier comment to Newsline Samoa.
The police pre-election growing worries are reflected on a temporary ban to be enforced on the sale of gun ammunitions during the elections period.
A list of selected retailers selling ammunition is circulated in a police warning notice.
The ban followed an earlier community sweep of illegal guns that maybe in illegal circulation in the country.
Newsline Samoa is still waiting for confirmation of an interview with the Commissioner of Police on the enforcement duties lined up for the police in upcoming general elections.
The General Election is the first for the Commissioner in his role as head of the Ministry of Police.