15 Jul 2008

New Samoa Party to have first meeting tonight

3:42 pm on 15 July 2008

Members of the newly formed Tautua Samoa party will have their first meeting tonight.

Twelve independent MPs have formed the new grouping that will be in the centre of the political spectrum.

At present, apart from independents there is only one party in the parliament which is the ruling Human Rights Protection Party.

The spokesperson for the Tautua Samoa party, MP Leala Ilepule, says apart from electing a president and other representatives, they'll need to discuss their registration process.

"We will be having our first meeting with this new group of people that came on board to help us and of the issues is to looking at the registration of the party. Some say that for the party to be registered, we can still go ahead and register the party name and all the party members, public members, but not to register our names within the party. In case that they might call for by-elections. But we are seeking legal opinion on that."

Leala Ilepule says another option is to register the party as a company.