After the first day of pre-polling in Samoa’s general elections, the ruling Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) is leading in the preliminary count the over new party Faatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) Party with almost fifty percent of the vote.
However, the counting and announcing of the pre-polling results has raised some eyebrows in the public; especially amongst social media commentators.
One pointed out that the early announcement of results can influence the votes of those who have yet to cast their votes.
“This does not happen in New Zealand, Australia or even the USA who recently held presidential elections,” said one person.
In an interview with Loabay Internet Radio on Saturday, Electoral Commissioner Faimalomatumua Mathew a Lemisio said they had decided not to “sleep on the results” and would count and announce them each day.
“We hope this will appease those, especially from overseas, complaining why we would sleep on the results.”
Faimalomatumua told media, after counting on the first day, that his office had “received great feedback and some complaints about our work.””Well, we appreciate all the complaints as it helps us be better in the next days of our pre-polling,” he said.
Special booths were set up for voting in Apia and villages around the country to cater for the 8576 voters registered to pre-poll and approximately 32 percent cast their votes on the first of four days of pre-polling.
General voting is set for 9:00 a.m. Friday April 9th with preliminary counting expected to happen as soon as booths close at 4:00 p.m.
Photo: EFKS Hall, Vaimoso
