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Aumua Amata overwhelmingly wins a 4th consecutive 2-year term

Congresswoman Aumua Amata
fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICA SAMOA — Incumbent Congresswoman Aumua Amata is heading back to Washington D.C. for a fourth consecutive two-year term in office after being re-elected during yesterday’s general election, beating out challengers Meleagi Suitonu-Chapman — who is among local residents stranded in the U.S — and Oreta Tufaga-Mapu Crichton.

The Republican congresswoman’s lead began with results from the polling stations in Manu’a dominating all three polling stations, which all closed early after all electors on the voter roll had cast ballots. Amata has dominated the Manu’a polls in the past several elections.

“Thank you to everyone who voted for me, and thank you to everyone who took time to participate in our elections,” said Amata in her thank you message to the people of American Samoa. “I want to say a special thank you to the other candidates on the ballot.”

“I think the entire Nation could do better with the respectful tone we have with each other here. We can express a different viewpoint politely,” she said and points out she looks forward to working with the new incoming administration in government. (See today’s Samoa News edition for the Congresswoman’s Thank You message, as a paid advertisement.)

Of the total 11,833 ballots counted, Amata received 9,880 votes (83.5%); Suitonu-Chapman with 249 votes (2.1%) and Crichton got 1,704 votes (14.4%)

In the 2018 mid-term election, Amata received 83.3% of the 8,638 ballots counted. She was challenged at the time by Suitonu-Chapman and Tuika Tuika. In the 2016 race, she won 75.4% of the ballots counted and Suitonu-Chapman was among the four other challengers at the time.

There’s a 7-day waiting period before the results are made official.