The 49 members of the
Legislative Assembly were elected from 49 single-member
constituencies. All seats were elected using
first-past-the-post voting. Candidates were required to be at least 21 years of age, be a
Matai and resident of the country for at least three years prior the nomination date. Civil servants and people with mental illness were ineligible to stand as candidates. People convicted for bribery or an electoral offense, and people given a prison sentence of more than two years (including the death sentence), were also ineligible. Around 116,000 electors were registered for the election. The Constitution Amendment Act 2013 ensures a minimum of 10 per cent of seats in parliament were
reserved for women.
Electoral reforms In 2013 a constitutional amendment was passed in parliament, mandating that at least five members of the legislative assembly are women. If this quota were unfulfilled following an election, the amendment permits parliament to establish up to five additional seats that would be allocated to the unsuccessful female candidates with the highest quantity of votes. Parliament passed legislation in 2014 barring candidates from providing gifts to villages within their constituency until after an election in an attempt to stamp out undue influence and prevent excessive electoral petitions that follow. Parliamentary hopefuls had traditionally presented gifts to potential voters upon declaring their candidacy.
Electoral boundary changes The legislative assembly introduced constituency boundary changes in 2015. The six double-member constituencies were split into twelve constituencies, each represented by one member of parliament. The reform also abolished the two individual voters seats, that were for voters with partial or no Samoan ancestry or citizens that had no ties to any traditional village. The Urban East and Urban West constituencies replaced the individual seats, and consisted of voters in Apia residing on non-customary land or those not tied to a traditional village. Individuals living in Apia who did have ties to a traditional village outside the capital could choose to either enrol in their home constituency or one of the urban electorates so long as they had lived in Apia for at least six months. The creation of the urban electorates resulted from voters from traditional villages around Apia expressing discontent with urban settlers allegedly having an overbearing influence over the electoral outcome in their constituencies. The abolition of the double-member seats reduced an imbalance of representation to a certain extent, as voters in these electorates were permitted to cast two votes. During the redrawing process, a major priority was to ensure the boundaries remained organised around the
traditional political districts, all of which were tied to matai titles, to prevent tensions from arising. Population distribution was less of a priority, resulting in some constituencies remaining disproportionately larger than others.
Voters Enrollment of eligible voters was compulsory; however, it was voluntary to cast a ballot.
Universal suffrage was introduced in 1990, permitting Samoan citizens over the age of 21 to vote in person. Voting registration usually closes six months before a general election and re-opens immediately after. Voters could elect to enrol in a constituency rather than the one where they reside by right of significant family ties or matai titles. As a result, the population of constituencies and the constituency's voter roll have not always correlated. Samoan citizens residing abroad were permitted to register, but the government refused to entertain overseas voting. Therefore, voters abroad had to travel to Samoa to cast their ballots. This decision drew criticism from the opposition TSP, which demanded the government permit overseas voting. Prime minister Malielegaoi defended his government's decision and dismissed the opposition's pleas as a "foolish tactic" that would lead to the country "being governed by overseas Samoans". == Schedule ==