A former Mayor of Palisi, Tevaga Sasulu Vaigalepa, has appealed to the Government to make their village independent of Lalovaea.

Tevaga and other Palisi residents made the point to Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi and Cabinet Ministers on Friday during the opening of a new road that runs through the village, which is less than five minutes from the Apia Central Business District.

Currently, Palisi and Lalovaea-i-sisifo, share the same mayor. 

But Tevaga said it's time for that to change to allow Palisi to be separate from Lalovaea.

"I was the mayor before the mayor title was passed onto Lalovaea-i-sisifo this year and that's how it always has been," he said.

"I as well as other residents understand the disadvantages of this system as it's creating a lot of conflicts between residents of the two villages and we all don't want that."

Separating the leadership of the two villages will help keep the peace.

"We want the families to have peace also while looking after the assets that belong to the Government that are in our village," he said.

"That's why we urged the Government today, we took advantage of the opportunity and asked the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to grant us one more wish. It would be nice to have our own mayor and a woman mayor to manage our own village affairs."

The call was supported by one of the oldest residents of the village, Mareta Manuele.

"Tevaga is right. I don't understand why we have to share the same mayor with Lalovaea when we can manage on our own," she said.

Palisi is not a traditional village known in Samoan as 'nu'u mavae'. 

But both Tevaga and Ms. Manuele want that to change. There are other developments they want Palisi to advocate for such as water developments.