Palusalue Fa’apo II is a Samoan politician and former Cabinet Minister. He is the leader of the opposition Tautua Samoa Party.[1]
Palusalue was first elected to Parliament in 1996.[2] He served as Parliamentary Undersecretary to the Minister of Justice. After being re-elected in 2001, 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.[2]
Palusalue left the governing Human Rights Protection Party in March 2008 and joined the opposition as an independent MP.[3] He later became a founding member of the Tautua Samoa Party.[4] 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.[5] He was subsequently reinstated after the Supreme Court of Samoa overturned the law and declared the formation of new parties legal.[6]
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.[7] As a result, along with Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi and Va'ai Papu Vailupe he was deemed to have resigned his seat.[8] He was re-elected in the resulting by-election.[9]