Afemata Palusalue Faapo II (born ~1956) is a

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

n politician and former

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

. From 2011 to 2016 he was the leader of the opposition

Tautua Samoa Party The Tautua Samoa Party () was a political party in Samoa. The party's policies include economic development, particularly in the agricultural sector, public service reform, a limit on the number of Associate Ministers, and a reduction in the ter ...

. Palusalue was first elected to Parliament in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. He served as Parliamentary Undersecretary to the Minister of Justice. After being re-elected in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, he was appointed to Cabinet, first as Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, and then as Minister of Communication & Information Technology. After the 2006 election he became associate Minister of Finance. Palusalue left the governing

Human Rights Protection Party The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP, ) is a Samoan political party. It was founded in 1979 and dominated Samoan party politics for decades thereafter, leading every government until their defeat in 2021. Former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele ...

in March 2008 and joined the opposition as an independent MP. He later became a founding member of the

. As a result, in May 2009 he was one of nine Tautua MPs declared to have resigned their seats under an anti-party hopping law. He was subsequently reinstated after the Supreme Court of Samoa overturned the law and declared the formation of new parties legal. In January 2010 new anti-party-hopping laws came into force, barring MPs from declaring their support for political parties or organizations with political aims other than the party they were elected for. As a result, along with

Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi (born April 1967) is a Samoan politician and member of the Legislative Assembly of Samoa. He is the founder of the Tautua Samoa Party. Lealailepule was first elected to Parliament at the 2006 Samoan general election, ...

and Va'ai Papu Vailupe he was deemed to have resigned his seat. He was re-elected in the resulting by-election. In December 2010 he was elected deputy leader of Tautua. He was re-elected in the 2011 election and re-elected deputy leader. Following Va'ai Papu Vailupe's loss of his seat for bribery and treating he became party leader. He lost his seat in the 2016 election. In 2017 he was conferred with the chiefly title of Afemata. He contested the 2021 election as a candidate for the Faatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party but was unsuccessful. In February 2023, the FAST government appointed Palusalue to serve as Samoa's consul-general in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, New Zealand.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Palusalue Faapo Ii Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Members of the Legislative Assembly of Samoa Communication ministers of Samoa Transport ministers of Samoa Tautua Samoa Party politicians Human Rights Protection Party politicians Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi politicians