What is the rush to repeal the Electoral Roll Fa’atuatua I le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST)? Is it broken? If it is not, then leave it alone.

I feel sorry for the Minister responsible for the Electoral Office, Faualo Harry Schuster, who I believe has been pressured to fast-track these amendments to the Electoral Act to take effect before the next general elections by his Party’s leadership.

There would not have been this rush had FAST leadership not believed that the majority of Samoans residing overseas supported them.

To stay in power following the next general elections, they badly need the expatriates’ votes because what support they might have had since becoming government has dissipated. What with the corruption, nepotism, the forever rising cost of living, and the hijacking of the Judiciary in seeking revenge against Opposition members, dismantling of the guardrails that were meant to protect our public sector and its institutions from political interference – the latest has been the Samoan National Provident Fund that the Chairperson of the Board manages the way he runs his piggery - coupled with the petulant behaviour of its leader who thinks he owns the Government.

Where is the evidence that FAST enjoys the support of most Samoans residing offshore - close to 200,000 of them in New Zealand alone? (It may have been spending too much time in its own echo chamber that it cannot help believing its own nonsense.) But even if they do, they may not get the votes they are hoping for; not even with this draconian amendment to the Electoral Act 2019 compelling Samoan residing overseas to register and vote or face the full wrath of the law.  

I say this for a number of reasons. Traditionally, Samoans in New Zealand are a “DON’T VOTE” people where voting is not compulsory. Statistics reveal that in past general elections and local bodies elections, electorates and wards like Mangere, Manurewa, Otahuhu, Otara and Papatoetoe where thousands of our people reside, traditionally have the lowest voter-turnout.

When the late Fa‘anānā Efeso Collins who fought so hard to improve the economic conditions and health service for the Pasifika people of South Auckland ran for Mayor of Auckland last year, the average voter turnout for the above wards was just 25-26% of eligible voters. Considering that all they had to do is tick the box beside the name of their preferred candidate in the voting form mailed to them a month before voting closed, place it in the ‘stamp-paid return envelope’ and post it back before, for most, that was just too much effort!!

Imagine how many of Samoan citizens will bother to register online to vote in our general election or travel here to complete the rest of their registration that the Government says they must? On the other hand, except for the better educated and those in the middle-income bracket, most of our people do not have computers at home as they do not see them as a necessity (Statistics New Zealand, January 2023) compared to other things like Sky TV for example.

Besides, how many of our people living abroad are prepared to pay their own way to come here to complete their registration? This is so absurd that one feels like laughing had the matter not been so serious. Airfares are ridiculously expensive these days and very few can afford it. A return economy fare from Perth, for example, – the Samoan population there has grown exponentially in the last 5 years because of well-paid jobs in the mines - will knock you back by around AUS$2200, and that’s not including living expenses while one is here.

Even Samoans in South Auckland where supporters of FAST are based may struggle to find the money for their airfares in order to complete their registration given that the Pasifika household’s median yearly income is about NZ$25,000 ($480 per week) (Statistics NZ, 2023). Those who are in full-time employment may also face difficulty convincing their employers that they need 2 weeks off work to come to Samoa to register for election.

Those on a good income or holding professional jobs may be able to, but they are unlikely to support FAST.

Unlike most of us here in Samoa, our citizens residing overseas especially New Zealand have tasted and understand FREEDOM. Any effort to compel them to do things that has little relevance to their lives, other than paying their tax and enhancing their children education and safety, will immediately get their backs up.

This amendment to the Electoral Act affecting our diaspora population is ill-conceived and will backfire on the Government. It will only benefit the Opposition.

Last Saturday while talking to a friend in Wellington who is planning to come over at the end of the year for a holiday with his family, I mentioned the possibility that he might get prosecuted while here if he had not completed his registration. His response was crisp and clear.

“My whole family, my siblings all live here and in Australia. Our parents are buried here. We have nothing back in Samoa except for a couple of uncles we hope to visit while we are there. I hold dual citizenship and I have always been proud of my Samoan birthright. I even travel on my Samoan Passport whenever I come over. But, if being a Samoan citizen living in New Zealand is going to get me into trouble or cause me headaches and cost me money because of the change in your electoral laws, then, I’ll renounce it.”