By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
The Judiciary is once again the setting of new attempts to decide if the HRPP or FAST should be the political party to rule Samoa in the next 5-years.
The Office of the Attorney General and the FAST legal teams are filing separate applications in court tomorrow morning, Monday 14 June 2021, to continue down the long legal road to decide the new political party in power.
The Attorney General’s court motion is for the swearing in ‘under tents’ of FAST elected Members of Parliament to be declared illegal.
If successful it will cancel out the new FAST Government sworn in under the powers of their lawyers in lieu of the Head of State, Member of the Council of Deputies and the Chief Justice.
The FAST legal team is hoping to win a contempt of court ruling against PM Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Speaker Toleafoa Fa’afisi and the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly Tiatia Graeme Tualaulelei.
The court action relates to a last minute Sunday ruling by the Supreme Court to reject a proclamation by the Head of State to call off the opening of Parliament the Monday following.
If FAST wins it will legitimize the ‘under the tent’ swearing in.
The hearing of applications by the two parties will be scheduled after they are brought up for mention in court tomorrow.
The return to the legal pathway picked up again after a brief pause when a short–cut solution that would see a return to general elections crashed. (see other story)
The last run of Judiciary hearings went all the way to the Appeals Court to reject a Supreme Court ruling against an added 6th seat in the 51-member Parliament.
The chances of the next round of Supreme Court hearings following the same course of action will be watched carefully once the rulings are handed down on the separate motions by each party.
How long the whole process takes is hard to tell at this point.
The Judiciary is also running a tight schedule of election petition hearings moving into the second week this week.
The 6-Justices of the Supreme Court are divided into three panels of judges to preside over each petition and counter petition hearing.
More than 70 election petitions and counter petitions are scheduled for hearings in the Supreme Court with 6-lined up for this week and a further 6-next week.
The hearings are largely expected to flow into as late as September with bi-elections to be included as well depending on the outcome of each court petition decision.
The hearings of election petitions have been delayed twice with the urgent priority placed on the hearing of Constitutional matters by the judiciary.
The court will again decide whether the same priority be place on the new applications going for mention in court this week.
