1988 Western Samoan general election

1988 Western Samoan general election

26 February 1988
All 47 seats in the Legislative Assembly 24 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Tofilau Eti Alesana Vaʻai Kolone Party HRPP CDP-Kolone Last election 31 – Seats won 23 24 Seat change 9 New Popular vote 5,017 2,300 Percentage 35.87% 16.45% Swing 1.33pp New
Prime Minister before election Tofilau Eti Alesana HRPP Elected Prime Minister Tofilau Eti Alesana HRPP

General elections were held in Western Samoa on 26 February 1988. Voting was restricted to Matai and citizens of European origin ("individual voters"), with the Matai electing 45 MPs and Europeans two. Although the Human Rights Protection Party received more than double the number of votes of the Coalition of the Christian Democratic Party and the Va'ai Kolone Group, it won one fewer seat. However, on the day of the election of the Prime Minister by Parliament, one Coalition MP defected to the HRPP, allowing its leader Tofilau Eti Alesana to be elected Prime Minister.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Human Rights Protection Party	5,017	35.87	23	–9
	Coalition	2,300	16.45	24	New
	Independents	6,668	47.68	0	0
Total		13,985	100.00	47	0
Valid votes		13,985	99.41
Invalid/blank votes		83	0.59
Total ballots cast			–
Registered voters/turnout		23,160	–
Source: Nohlen et al.

Proportionality

Gallagher Index for the 1988 Western Samoan general election

Party		Votes (%)	Seats (%)	Difference	Difference squared
	Human Rights Protection Party	35.87%	48.94%	13.07	170.8249
	Coalition	16.45%	51.06%	34.61	1197.8521
	Independent	47.68%	0.00%	-47.68	2273.3824
Total of differences squared					3642.0594
Total / 2					1821.0297
Square root of (Total / 2): Gallagher Index result					42.67
The Gallagher Index ranges from 0 to 100. Low indexes (close to 0) are very proportionate, high indexes (20 or greater) are very disproportionate.

See also

• List of members of the Legislative Assembly of Western Samoa (1988–1991)