Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Despite the approval by voters of the Constitutional amendment giving the Swains Island Representative “the right to vote” in the House, the fight to get Swains Island “recognized” as a legitimate part of American Samoa is far from over.

This is according to Swains Island Representative Su’a Alexander Eli Jennings in an interview with Samoa News.

 “After 60 years since the legislature was established we finally have the opportunity to consider Swains Island and I was trying to give it the right to vote and it took a lot of work.

 “But perhaps the most difficult part about this whole process was that nobody could tell me why Swains never got a vote and why we don’t have a sitting Senator,” he said.

The unofficial Midterm Election results on the Constitutional amendment giving the delegate from Swains Island the right to vote in the House of Representatives received 3,883 yes votes, while 3,001 voted against it.

 Su’a told Samoa News Swains was “brought in by Congress but it looks like we have become a territory of Tutuila, Aunu’u and Manu’a because we were placed into the House of Representatives and not given a vote.

 “And this is just like what the United States does to American Samoa, take our delegate put them in the House of Representatives and don’t give them a vote.

 “Swains Island you know unfortunately has no representative in the Senate and no vote in the House and so it looks like we've become a neglected territory of Tutuila and Manu’a and that's the most difficult thing,” he reiterated.

Su’a said he has learned a lot from the process.

 “And hopefully I will be able to make more improvements for Swains Island in moving forward.”

He said that Swains still has a long way to go.

 “This is the first time we've tried it and I'm very very encouraged by the fact that we had enough support from Tutuila and Manu’a and Swains Islanders to reach 55 percent margin for our first time.

 “And now it goes before the US Department of Interior and it is far from over.

“I’m just hoping to have an opportunity to make a presentation to the Department of Interior if there are any difficulties in approving our plea.

 “After the DOI it goes to Congress so we still have a long way to go, but I think the hardest part of this process is done and it’s completed.

 “And it took the effort of delegates in the Constitutional Convention. Senator Togiola Tulafono did a phenomenal job in explaining and clarifying the situation with Swain's island.

 “Togiola highlighted the importance of Swains Island and also the comparison between Swains island delegate selection and Senators and if the Senators are allowed to vote, Swains Island delegate should be able to vote too,” he said.

Adding that it took the right combination of everyone to get to where Swains is today.

 “The most important thing is for Swains Island to have is some kind of influence in our government in order to get their fair share of opportunities like everybody else — like Tutuila, Aunuu and Manu’a.

 “Once we give Swains a vote then we can look at the rest of our Constitution and see what other ways we can completely include Swains Island in this government.

 “I still feel we’re isolated and we're not treated fairly and equally to the rest of the islands and we depend solely on the government for all our essential services like transportation, infrastructure, communication assets just like Tutuila, Aunuu and Manu’a.

 “They never have to worry about that and it's not something that they have to ask, but for Swains Island it is the same way; we depend on the government for these essential services and I think that because we didn't have a vote that's how we were able to lose out on a lot of these things. 

 “We had absolutely no effect in any discussions about what's going on in American Samoa and out of over $400 million budget we may have gotten $50,000 a year for the last 18 years,” he said.

Su’a concluded by thanking the people of Manu’a Tutuila and Aunu’u for supporting the referendum that would give Swains Island a vote in the House after 60 years.