Now the government is poised to push through an amendment that would require all would-be MPs to fulfil a service requirement to their village before they'd be eligible to stand.
Opposition leader Palusalue Fa'apo says the move is in line with chiefly traditions, but the timing of it, with only a year to go before the next election, will discriminate against women and undermine government policy of raising the number of female MPs to at least one in ten.
