Chamber:
	Fono - Legislative Assembly
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	2 March 2001
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all the seats in Parliament on the normal expiry of the members' term of office.
Background and outcome of elections:
	Samoans went to the polls on 2 March 2001 to elect the 49 new members of Parliament. According to the Registrar of Electors and Voters, some 93,212 voters were registered to cast ballots. The two main parties in the race were the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), led by the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailel Malielegaoi, (who had taken over as Prime Minister following the resignation of former PM Tofilau Eti Alesana in 1998) and the Samoa National Development Party (SNDP). Two new parties, the Samoa United People Party (SUPP) and the Samoa All People (SAP) made up the four parties that fielded candidates. The SNDP had fought a campaign based on claims of corruption among HRPP members. The opposition charged the ruling party with the illegal sale of Samoan passports to Chinese and Taiwanese nationals, a scandal first uncovered in 1997, and with the mismanagement of State-owned Polynesian Airlines, the national carrier. The electoral campaign was also marked by strong and widely publicised criticisms by the Opposition of the Electoral Amendment Act that came into force on 6 July 2000 providing for the increase in the residency requirement from 12 months to 3 years to be elegible to vote or stand for election. Results showed that the ruling HRPP had been returned to office but with less than half of the seats in the Legislative Assembly. This party, which has ruled Samoa for all but two of the past 19 years and had won 36 parliamentary seats in 1996, obtained 23 of the 49 seats in parliament, against 13 for the SNDP, 12 for independents and 1 for the SUPP. The outgoing Prime Minister secured the support of enough independent parliamentarians to continue in power and on 13 March 2001 was reappointed by the Head of State as Prime Minister. On 15 March 2001, the Parliament held its first sitting and re-elected Mr Toleafoa Faafisi to a second term as Speaker.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 (2 March 2001): Elections results
Number of registered electors	93 213
Voters	76 811 (82.4%)
Blank or invalid ballot papers	360
Valid votes	76 451

Round no 1: Distribution of votes
Political Group	Candidates	Votes	%
Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP)	55	34 459	45.07
Samoan National Development Party (SNDP)	33	17 966	23.5
Samoa United People Party (SUPP)	5	1 898	2.48
Independents	60	22 368	29.26

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total
Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP)	23
Samoan National Development Party (SNDP)	13
Samoa United People Party (SUPP)	1
Independents	12

Comments:
	Five Parliamentarians who are actually HRPP members but ran in the elections as independents because of party policies returned to HRPP before swearing in. Parliamentarians sworn in and recorded on 15 March: HRPP 28, SNDP 13, Independents 8 (SUPP's one member was counted as an Independent under parliament Standing Order).

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	46
Women:	3
Percent of women:	6.12

Distribution of seats according to age:
31 to 40 years	1
41 to 50 years	10
51 to 60 years	26
61 to 70 years	10
Over 70 years	2
Distribution of seats according to profession:
Civil servants (incl. former)	18
Self-employed	18
Business/Trade/Industry	12
Private sector employees	1