Lotofaga to present their Member of Parliament to the FAST Party

Elected unopposed for the Lotofaga constituency is former Deputy Prime Minister, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa.

Staff Reporters

APIA, SAMOA – 08 MARCH 2021: The unopposed election candidate for Lotofaga, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, will be presented by her constituency to the FAST political party in a ceremony at midday today.

The former Deputy Prime Minister had been a special guest at the FAST political rallies that had been meeting electoral constituencies around the country over the last two months where she had been talking about the threats of the laws passed last December to Samoa’s constitutional rights and the rule of law.

Fiamē was elected Samoa’s first female Deputy Prime Minister after the 2016 general election.

However, she resigned all her government positions in September last year as “I could not support the 3 Bills as it is my view that they will destabilize our country’s justice system, undermine the rule of law and these legislations will have serious consequences for us all.”

She registered as an Independent candidate in October 2020 for the April 2021 general elections and she announced then that she endorsed the FAST Party’s policies.

During the political rallies, she told the voters that she was waiting for Parliament to be dissolved before she could move to become a FAST Party member.

Parliament was dissolved on Wednesday last week.

 Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa with a painting of her late father.

No Tama Aiga will be Prime Minister
As holder of a paramount Tama Aiga title, her chances of becoming Prime Minister were minimal as the Prime Minster announced in 2018 that “no Tama Aiga will ever become Prime Minister in a HRPP led government.”

Her chances of leading the FAST Party and as Prime Minister (if the party wins the April general elections) will be decided tomorrow when the party meets to elect its leaders and executive.

Fiamē Naomi is the only daughter of Samoa’s first Prime Minister on the country’s independence in 1962, the late Fiamē Mata’afa Faumuinā Mulinu’u 11 and educator and diplomat Laulu Fetauimalemau.

She was bestowed the Fiamē title when she was 20 years old upon her father’s sudden passing and she was first elected into parliament in 1985 when she was 27 years old.

She had been a Cabinet Minister since and up until she resigned as Deputy Prime Minister on a matter of principle, in September 2020.

As the longest serving Samoan woman MP, Fiamē has been a role model for many who wanted to take up politics as a career.

She has spearheaded many political workshops and programmes through the Samoa National Council of Women and with the UN agencies.

Talamua will stream live the presentation ceremony at 1200 this afternoon.