Samoa parliament

But it is without the members of the opposition HRPP party, who were shut out by the Speaker, Papalii Lio Masipau.

Papali'i announced a ban yesterday, saying the HRPP is still failing to acknowledge that the FAST party won the election.

This follows months of legal squabbles between the parties but last month the Court of Appeal declared FAST were the legitimate winners of the election.

This morning the HRPP staged a march near the grounds of parliament until police stepped in and told people to return to the party offices.

The FAST party members, which won the April election, were sworn in under a tent outside parliament while the 25 HRPP members stayed away after a declaration by the Head of State who voided an earlier call for the meeting.

According to the Samoa Observer, the new Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa said regardless of the differences between political parties the unsworn members represent their constituents.

Forum Secretary General Henry Puna, in a statement said Samoa has for a long time been a shining example of self-determination and democracy within our Forum family.

He said the recent political developments continue to test the stability and relationship between Samoa’s governing institutions.

Puna said the most recent judgments by Samoa’s judiciary affirm a way forward aligned to the Constitution of Samoa.

He made the announcement on television last night ahead of today's deadline set by the Supreme Court for parliament to sit after the April election.

The FAST party won a slim majority but the rival HRPP remains in a caretaker role, insisting that the parliament must have six seats for women.

Only five women were elected and Tuimalealiifano said this has to be taken into account.

But it has also ruled that parliament must sit within 7 days, giving FAST the ability to declare government and be sworn in.

Currently FAST has 26 seats, while the caretaker HRPP government has 24.

However due to the political and constitutional impasse since April's general election, parliament has not yet convened.

The Appellate Court on Friday declared that the issue of a contentious sixth women's electoral seat could not prevent the convening of parliament.

Under the Constitution, Parliament should convene 45 days after an election. Samoa's general election was held on 9 April.

The emergent Fa'atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party has a one seat majority in Parliament, following a court case on Monday.

The Office of the Electoral Commission and the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) sought a court order to stay the execution of a Supreme ruling earlier this week in which a sixth women's seat was declared void.

The FAST party, which is locked in a 26-seat deadlock with the Human Rights Protection Party, was challenging the electoral commissioner's decision to add the seat, which went the way of the caretaker HRPP government, creating the deadlock.

The constitution provides that 10 percent of parliament's seats be reserved for women, but it also specifies that that is five seats. This is the crux of the argument -- the election saw five women elected, or 9.8 percent.

As a result, an additional woman, Ali'imalemanu Alofa Tuuau, was declared MP for the incumbent Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), joining five other women already elected to Parliament.

The move has complicated the aspirations of former deputy prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, who was expected to become the nation's first female prime minister once her Fa'atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST party) claimed a slim majority.

The Lefaga ma Falease'ela MP left Samoa a week ago and died in New Zealand on Tuesday.

The Speaker of the House, Leaupepe Toleafoa Fa'afisi, announced the news in Parliament's final session today before the April's general election.

Parliament marked the death with a moment's silence.

Toleafoa is the second MP of the ruling HRPP party to die while holding office in the current term.

Leaupepe passed his regards on to the popular MP's family.

The proposals were widely condemned by lawyers and judges, and saw several MPs - including the former deputy prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa - leave the ruling party.

But in Tuesday's sitting of parliament, they passed with the support of 41 MPs from the Human Rights Protection Party with only one amendment - a plan to cap at five the number of high chiefs in a family was removed.