By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Mulinu’u will again be the setting of more Monday post-election misery as the country continues to sink into the quicksand of political uncertainty in close to 2-months now.
This time it is the Human Rights Protection Party’s (HRPP) turn to assert their political presence with an early morning national supporters gathering at the Tiafau Malae.
The Government caretaker party is calling in the faithful to hear their views on new directions for the HRPP leaders to follow in the current political standoff.
The Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and party caucus MPs have never before called a national supporters gathering until now.
The FAST political party organised a similar get together the previous Monday that turned into a failed attempt to enter a locked and sealed Parliament House.
The sequence of events to follow on the day lasted into the evening when 26 of the FAST elected MPs were sworn-in on a controversial swearing in.
Party leader Fiame Naomi Mataafa was made Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was at the time dancing in an HRPP celebration, only a few hundred meters away at party headquarters.
The rightful holder of office is floating with PM Tuilaepa and his Cabinet still running the country as a caretaker Government.
The hearing of the appeal against the Supreme Court ruling to void the 6th elected woman MP to make up the 10 per cent of women seats in the House is also scheduled on Monday.
Whether the HRPP supporters will still be around when the court is called to preside is unclear .
FAST supporters, however, have been gathering infront of the Court House in previous court hearings while legal proceedings were underway.
It remains to be seen if they will turn up again for the Monday appeal hearing that will carry a decisive ruling into the direction of a new Parliament to follow.
There are also reports of a women’s rights supporters group planning to gather at the Court House to show support for a court ruling in favour of a 6th woman MP.
Chief Justice Satiu Simativa Perese will preside with Justices Tafaoimalo Leilani Tuala-Warren and Fepulea’i Ameperosa Roma on the bench for the appeal hearing.
An appeals court ruling to uphold the Supreme Court earlier verdict would give the FAST a one-seat majority in Parliament.
Denial of the Supreme Court ruling would lead to a hung Parliament with a 26-seat tie and most likely a return to general elections.
The Appeals Court is tentatively set to deliver a ruling either this Wednesday 2 June 2021 or Thursday 3 June 2021.
Public anticipation of the court decision is on high suspense with pressure on police security to keep close control on the gathering supporters of both sides at Mulinu’u.
A heavy police security force kept a tight watch on the events of the previous Monday.
A mix of on-duty officers in uniform and a special squad in civilian wear were on full crowd control alert.
Most were concentrated at the Tiafau Malae as the nerve centre of events. Several were spread out on both sides of the road up to the HRPP Petesa party headquarters several hundred meters away on the Apia side of Mulinu’u.