APIA – Samoa’s prime minister has attributed his party’s resounding victory in last Friday’s general election to his government’s ability to deliver on its promises.

The Human Rights Protection Party of Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi won 44 of the 49 seats in parliament.

It was the best-ever election performance for the party, which has dominated Samoan politics for most of the time since 1982.

Tuilaepa has been Prime Minister for almost eighteen years, and admited he’s still excited by the challenge of leading Samoa.

“I have been asked that question many times, and it seems that my party always finds me acceptable to them and so I just carry on.”

Tuilaepa said his government’s biggest challenge in the next term in office is to implement climate change adaptation programmes.

He pinpointed climate change as a leading issue that his island country is grappling with.

“The biggest challenge for the government would be to put in place adaptation projects that would assist the country cope with climate change, and that means it cuts right across all sectors of the economy.”

Tuilaepa said another main challenge is to keep growing Samoa’s economy after the moderate but positive growth of recent years in the face of global financial shocks.

Meanwhile Tuilaepa confirmed the selection of one of four female MPs-elect, Fiame Naomi Mataafa, as the HRPP’s new deputy leader.

He said it is a victory for the women of Samoa. It’s the highest executive position that a woman has ever reached in the history of Samoa’s government.

Mataafa is the daughter of the first prime minister of Samoa.

She was the minister of justice in the previous government, and has also previously been the minister of youth, women and rural affairs, and the minister of education.

She was educated in New Zealand and was aged 18 when her father, Mataafa Fiame Mulinuu II, passed away,

Her late mother, Laulu Fetauimalemau Mataafa, was also a member of parliament.

She will replace Fonotoe Lauofo Pierre Meredith as deputy prime minister and, according to political observers, would be the most logical choice to succeed Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi as the head of HRPP and the next prime minister of Samoa should he give up the post.

The HRPP’s election whitewash dealt a huge blow to the main opposition Tautua Samoa Party, which was decimated in Friday’s poll. It retained only three of its 12 MPs and its leader, Palusalue Fa’apo II, was voted out of his Safata Sisifo electorate.

The result means the party fell well short of the eight MPs required to even qualify as a party in parliament, and with two independent MPs likely to side with the government, the already small parliamentary opposition has dwindled to just three MPs.

- RNZI