The Samoan government is considering laws to ban traditional gift-giving at election times, building on existing laws seen as preventing potential corruption of democratic processes.

“The ‘O’o’ presentations of gifting from candidates to constituencies has been an ongoing issue,” said Justice and Courts Administration minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mataafa.

“After the last elections there were a spate of court hearings on charges of bribery and corruption.

“It is noteworthy that for the first time charges were laid against both candidates and electors alike,” she said.

Government is looking at a law that would delay traditional gift-giving until well after election results are known

“In the amendments proposed, the O’o should only take place after the election results have been posted,” she said in response to email questions from Samoa Observer.

Questions were raised after reports from American Samoa about the introduction of a bill to ban giving out free food on election day.

Amendments to the Electoral Act In Samoa would go much further, banning all gift-giving from candidates to their constituents for the entire election period.

Gifts have often consisted of money, food, drinks and items for shared village use.

Instead of during election campaigns, Fiame said the timing for O’o should take place within the first twelve months of a successful candidate’s term. This could see gift-giving reduced from multiple candidates to just one.

Fiame acknowledged continued concerns about increases in the amount of gift-giving over the years, and whether that had a corrupting influence on elections.

“There has been an increase in gift giving which is due to factors including, the numbers of candidates running in any one constituency, the increase of voters due the changes in 1991 when the voting was opened to non-matai.”

As well, she said there was an emerging practice of making presentations to each village as opposed to one presentation to the district or constituency as a whole.

She said there have been many discussions on this issue and the O’o is still seen as a significant cultural practice in Samoa that is valued by both candidates and constituents.

“The basis of the Samoan electorate is the traditional village-district units as opposed to purely geographical divisions.

“The O’o is a formal and open ceremonial gifting to acknowledge and reciprocate the privilege conferred on the candidate by the constituency to either contest the seat.

“Having the O’o outside the electoral period and within the first twelve months of the term is a way to ensure fair campaigning practice and also acknowledges the cultural and customary reciprocities between the candidates and constituencies.

Holding O’o ceremonies after elections will probably result in only the successful candidate making the presentations as opposed to all the candidates making presentations, said Fiame.

“Practice does evolve and I do foresee that the O’o practice will too,” she said.

“Please note that at this stage of legislative processing, the amendments are still “proposals until finalised, at first by cabinet and finally by parliament.”

Opposition member Toesulusulu Cedric Schuster said that there were existing laws in place to protect against corrupt practice during election campaigns.

“No form of treating or bribery is allowed, we already have it as part of the law,” he said. As for traditional gift giving, “this is a matter of how you interpret this.”

Asked about the American Samoa example, Toesulusulu welcomed the idea of additional amendments to the Electoral Act, but warned that changing the law alone would not be enough.

Changing attitudes to gift giving during elections would take commitment from not just members of parliament but also voters.

He said that the focus to gift often falls on the candidate. But “a lot of the time, it is the voter asking the candidate for favours.

“Until we strengthen the obligations on both, it’s always going to be a big part of elections in this country.”

He agreed that the number of requests from voters is increasing, with voters asking for help with school fees, funerals, and other faalavelave.

He agreed the gift-giving was getting out of hand,

“But what can we do? Gift giving in itself was not by definition ‘bad’ or necessarily caused by an intent to corrupt.

The increase in gifting should be seen as part of a natural part of a society that has developed from a largely village-based life to one where more and more people have paid jobs, better access to telecommunications and transport.

“As people get more, they started giving more and people started expecting more.”

Like Fiame, Toesulusulu said practices around gift-giving were changing and evolving.

Some candidates, he said, are able to afford more to give away, giving unfair advantage.

Attention also unfairly focused on Samoa and its traditions, he said, when electoral corruption was a problem everywhere, including Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

“There’s still a lot of under the table stuff going on over there,” he said, raising the question of how millions were raised for election campaigns – and how much of that made it into back pockets.

Toesulusulu said it would take that sort of leadership across all of society to ‘reduce the burden’ of gift giving, as talked about last year by churches.

“We have to devolve back to our cultural traditions – if we don’t, then people keep thinking anything is possible.”

Law changes would help begin that change, he acknowledged.