Samoa Government Collapses, New Election in August

Samoans will head to the polls on Aug. 29, six months earlier than expected, after Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa’s government collapsed following a budget defeat in parliament late last month, the Associated Press reported.

Fiamē, who became the South Pacific island nation’s first female prime minister in 2021 and ended four decades of Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) rule, now faces a three-way political battle that has ramifications far beyond Samoa, the newswire added.

Fiamē’s Faʻatuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) government fractured earlier this year after she fired party chairman La‘auli Leuatea Polataivao from the cabinet over criminal charges. The move triggered a party split.

While Fiamē survived two no-confidence votes, a joint effort by the HRPP and former FAST members to block the budget led to the dissolution of parliament and an early election, according to Radio New Zealand. Now, Fiamē is the head of the newly formed Samoa Uniting Party, going against the HRPP and La‘auli’s rebranded FAST.

This snap election takes place at a time of renewed geopolitical interest in the South Pacific, where Samoa is viewed as a crucial player in the intensifying competition for regional influence between China and traditional partners, such as Australia and the US.

Samoa is also highly vulnerable to climate change, as the 200,000-person archipelago is among the world’s most endangered by rising seas.