WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Samoa ’s Prime Minister said she would seek to dissolve Parliament, prompting an early election, after a vote on her government’s budget for the next year failed Tuesday.
Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa’s admission of defeat followed months of political havoc in the South Pacific island nation, during which the leader survived two votes of no confidence and struggled on with a minority government. Her budget was rejected during a swift vote in the capital Apia, with 34 lawmakers against it, 16 in favor and two abstaining.
An election must be held within 90 days. Samoa, a country of about 200,000 people, was due to go to the polls next April.
Samoa’s first woman leader
Fiamē has led Samoa since 2021, when she ousted her predecessor of 22 years. She is the country’s first woman prime minister and in 1991 was the first woman appointed to Samoa’s Cabinet.
The daughter of a former prime minister, Fiamē is one of the region’s longest-serving politicians. She came to power after splitting with the previous leader’s party over constitutional changes that she said would undermine the rule of law.
Fiamē holds a chiefly rank as a village leader, rare for women in Samoa. She remains an outlier, too, in Pacific island politics, where only 8% of parliamentarians are women, according to January figures from the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Politics roiled for months
Tuesday’s budget defeat capped months of political turmoil after Fiamē in January sacked a Cabinet member who faced a raft of criminal charges and is also her party’s chairman. He in turn expelled Fiamē from the FAST party and forced her into a minority government.
She beat two no-confidence motions since. Debate over the efforts to unseat her provoked outrage among some in Samoa when Fiamē’s opponents derided her for being unmarried and suggested she needed a husband’s advice.
Earlier this month Fiamē told reporters she would contest the election next April. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Warnings about election readiness
In Parliament Tuesday morning, the leader warned lawmakers that rejecting the budget would provoke operational problems for the government, according to Pacific news outlet PMN. Fiamē also cautioned that a re-registration process for Samoa’s voters, which was expected to conclude before next April’s vote, had only captured 52% of Samoans in the new system so far.
The old registration system was obsolete, her government said last year.
Fiamē has drawn attention outside Samoa for urging larger powers, such as Australia, to do more to curb the effects of climate change, which have been ruinous for low-lying Pacific island nations. She also took a more cautious approach than her predecessor to Beijing’s bankrolling of infrastructure projects in Samoa, which is heavily in debt to China.
Samoa has this year faced severe electricity shortages that Fiamē warned in April could seriously hamper the country’s economy.
