An election petition has been filed with the Appellate Division of the High Court for District 14, Alataua by losing candidate Fatumalala L. Atualevao Al-Shehri against the winner, House Speaker Savali Talavou Ale. Al-Shehri claims there have been violations of election rules  and asks that the results of the election be invalidated.

Two complaints have been filed for this year’s election, with the other filed by the losing candidate from Pago Pago alleging election fraud by the winning candidate, as well as neglect of duty by the Chief Election Officer in relation to the alleged fraud. (See yesterday’s story, Nov. 13, Samoa News)

Al-Shehri says the complaint she filed with the High Court on Tuesday is also on behalf of Samatua Edwin Hollister, the third candidate in the Alataua District House race.

According to the three-page complaint, Al-Shehri states she’s made some “astounding discoveries as observed during the 2014 Election with our District #14 Election.” She claims there were violations as per the election rules stated in the 2014 Candidate Manual.

According to the complaint, at the Poloa, Fagali’i and Fagamalo polling stations, the following happened: There were two elderly men who were unable to vote on their own and they were accompanied by their daughters, even though the designated time for the disabled to vote had expired. One of the elderly men made it to the booth, but the girl went with him into the booth to cast his vote, while the other girl took the ballots out to the car for the other elderly man to cast his vote.

Al-Shehri noted that according to election laws “no person other than the district officials… may be permitted within the polling place and that area surrounding the polling place…to preserve a peaceful and quiet atmosphere for balloting process…”

The complaint further says that a woman, Ailini Asiata, came and sat at the election table and was confronted by a Samatua poll watcher as “not an official person on the list.” However she sat, adamantly declaring she was the main person for Candidate Savali, and did not move. She was later approved by Savali, not the Election Office — via telephone — as his official poll watcher and she remained.

“How is this possible when the time is expired to submit poll watcher names? Clearly there were multiple violations of the rules here,” she stated in her complaint.

Al-Shehri is also asking the Appellate Court to “recheck” 14 names she provided in her complaint, wherein she claims they were off island, however it is shown that they had voted in the election.

She pointed out that the 2014 Candidate Manual, Election Offenses, Election Fraud Section E, states that everyone who at any election votes or attempts to vote in the name of any other person, living or dead, or in some fictitious or who, having once voted, votes or attempts to vote again... is considered fraud.

In her complaint, Al-Shehri also questions the way the ‘underage’ in votes counted was handled.

Noting the total of numbers of registered voters is 199 for Poloa, where 57 did not vote and 142 voted, but the total number of votes shown for the three candidates is 123+8+8, which equals 139, which is 3 short of the number of those said to have voted. “What happened to the other 3 votes?” she asks.

She then cites Section 6.0803- Underage — of the manual noting that the election officials are to make note of this fact on a form to be provided to the Chief Election Officer and “after this notation, the election officials shall proceed to count the ballots in the manner provided by local statute…”

Al-Shehri further points out that the total number of registered voters was 651, and voters who voted were 420 , but this number does not match the total number of votes cast, totals up to 428, indicating that there was a “6” vote overage, but officials made no note of this fact either. (Samoa News should point out that the overage is 8, not 6.)

The complainant says there are other issues of importance that trouble her: 1. The use of a pencil to cast a vote, noting “there is more probability of cheating by writing with a pencil than with pen”; and, 2. The fact that there were no new lists provided for the poll watchers so the candidates had to provide from their own old lists of registered voters.

Al-Shehri concluded by pointing out that aside from doing the right thing with abiding by Election laws “there is a duty in restoring the confidence of our people, to take control over matters of their own district.” She writes of the “appalling” fact that almost half of the voters didn’t vote in this election and that a “big number of voters… expressed disappointment in our district #14,” and mentions in an aside the “underhand politics that no one dares to testify to…”