According to proposed amendments the Senate included in an administration bill passed in third reading last Friday in the Senate, erecting campaign signs and billboards during an election year as well as setting up tents to distribute free any type of beverage at locations of polling stations on election day, will be banned under local law.

Both the Election bill and the Immigration Amnesty bills were acted on by the Senate.

ELECTION BILL

Original language of the bill proposed four major changes:

1            Ban on setting up tents to distribute free food — including BBQ plates on election day at locations of polling places;

2            provides for a run-off in case of a tie vote between two or more candidates, when there is at least one additional candidate not involved in the tie for the local House race;

3            have American Samoa comply with federal law mandating 45-day timeframe to deliver absentee ballots to uniformed service and overseas voters for the Congressional race; and,

4            include as election fraud the use of Samoan customs — such as gift presentation or anything of value.

The Senate agreed to all these provisions and added more. For example, erecting tents to give any types of free beverages on election day — similar to the ban to set up tents to distribute free food on election day — is prohibited.

Another amendment added by the Senate is banning any campaign signs or billboards. Former chief election officer, Sen. Soliai Tuipine Fuimaono suggested during a Senate hearing early last week that such a ban is necessary to ensure peace and harmony in the community, especially within extended families during election time.

During his many years at the election office, Soliai says that he has witnessed many conflicts with the leading matai and their families over the campaign signs — where the matai endorsed a candidate, while the extended family endorsed a different candidate, thereby erecting campaign bill boards and other signage on communal land.

Soliai said that this is one of the big issues during election year which divides families, and it’s best that a decision is made by the Senate to amend the law to ban campaign signs to ensure peace and harmony within families, as well as the community.

AMNESTY BILL

The Senate also approved in third reading — without any changes — the administration’s Immigration Amnesty bills.

The two bills are now before the House for consideration. The House has yet to act on their version of the administration bills.

Prior to passing the Immigration Amnesty bill, Sen. Laolagi F.S. Vaeao pleaded with the Administration to fully enforce all current immigration laws going forward. He says he does not want to see another amnesty bill submitted in the future, because there are 1,000 or more foreigners living in the territory without their immigration status being legal.

“The Senate is approving this bill, which I fully support, with the hope that the administration will enforce all immigration laws going forward to ensure there are no more illegal foreigners living in American Samoa,” he said.

Sen. Afoa L.S. Lutu pointed out that this is an important bill in moving forward to address current immigration issues. He said this is the first step towards protecting local borders.

If enacted into law, the Immigration Amnesty bill will allow more than 2,400 foreign nationals, who registered during the recent amnesty campaign to reside legally in the territory.

The bill also includes just over 1,000 people lawfully present and already in the Immigration Board queue awaiting their quota to become available.

The total number of foreigners to be allowed under the proposed amendment to current law stands at 4,111.