Samoan voters will have 42 less candidates to choose from in the May 21st snap elections than when they went to the polls April 9 to elect MPs for the country’s 17th Parliament.
Samoa Observer reports 39 of the candidates who had withdrawn by the 12noon Friday deadline were from the Human Rights Protection Party of caretaker Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.
The new Faatuatua I Le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party has stuck with the same candidates fielded in the April elections.
The office of the Electoral Commission released the names who had withdrawn which included a Tautua Samoa party candidate and a Samoa First party female candidate plus one independent.
The HRPP claimed after the April General Elections that they received more votes than the other parties but they had too many candidates running spreading the numbers.
The party that had governed Samoa for most of the last 40 years went to the polls with 46 parliamentary seats and returned with only 25 seats on election night.
The new FAST party had only 4 seats but gained 21 more plus the support of one independent.
The addition of an extra female seat to HRPP effectively created a deadlock which promoted the Head of State, Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, to call fresh elections.
However a legal challenge has been launched by FAST which may or may not see the snap election called off.
The challenge will be heard Thursday, Samoa time.
