By Staff Writer
Organisers of the Human Rights Protection Party, HRPP, were stunned by the response to their Saturday fundraising radiothon that crossed the $1 million tala mark in just over 6 hours.
Pledges flooded in by phone and online links from the Samoan diaspora outside the country that before 3.30pm in the afternoon the 6-figure mark was reached.
With several more hours still left to run before closing time, the outpouring of support was still going strong with total pledges at $1.3 million tala already.
By closing time at 6.00pm in the evening the total tally of pledges stood at $1.6 million tala.
“ Just amazing,” HRRP party secretary MP Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi, reacted in a daze at the generous outpouring of public support.
He placed much of the credit on the majority of the party faithful who responded from the silence of their support to the fundraising call.
“The way our silent supporters rose to join with all those who are always in the forefront shows how God is always in control,” the party secretary went on.
The radiothon is the first major fundraising drive by the opposition party since their Saturday nights ‘sing-along’ at the Maota i Petesa.
The singing sessions started off innocently as a fun evening that was streamed live on social media.
The party leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, led the small entertainment group at first.
Loving fans both local and outside the country surprised the group with a few odd tala in donations at the start.
The singing of old Samoan favourite songs quickly captured a growing audience and the popularity picked up steadily over recent weeks.
Donations reached the $100 thousand tala mark a few Saturday’s ago, but it appears to have served as an appetizer to the major Saturday radiothon success.
The HRPP has to win back 7 of their Parliamentary seats lost to the court rulings on election petitions in the upcoming general elections yet to be announced.
The radiothon is to raise the needed funds to cover the party’s costs in a bid to regain all their seats.
Party leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, made a direct appeal to voters of all the electoral constituencies in the by-elections, to show their support by voting to retain the HRPP candidates.
“You are HRPP constituencies and we pray that you will show your support by returning our candidates to continue to contribute to our developments,” Tuilaepa urged.
He made the appeal mid-way through yesterday’s radiothon at party headquarters, Sogi.
“While the court ruling costs our candidates their seats none of the FAST party members did.”
Tuilaepa also recalled the recent treatment of the elected members of the party by the police at Mulinu’u as a reminder to the voters the frightening changes that have never happened before in Samoa until now.
“There has never been anything like this in the past and as a party based on human rights, we cannot sit back and let that happened again.
“A person has a right to walk on the road without being stopped by the police without any legal reason.”
Pledges were still being called in even after closing time on Saturday and they are expected to raise the final fundraising total even higher.