Samoa Is In The Throes Of A Constitutional Crisis

The Pacific island nation elected its first female prime minister, but the previous leader refuses to step down.
Samoa

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The Pacific island nation elected its first female prime minister, but the previous leader refuses to step down. The general election was in April, but no new government has been formed.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Pacific island nation of Samoa is in the middle of a constitutional crisis. They held a general election in April but have yet to form a new government. Ashley Westerman reports the government in power is refusing to leave.

ASHLEY WESTERMAN, BYLINE: Monday was supposed to be a historic day for Samoa, the first transfer of power to a different ruling party in some 40 years and the swearing-in of its first female prime minister, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa.

DAMON SALESA: But that’s not what happened.

WESTERMAN: That’s Damon Salesa, associate professor of Pacific studies at the University of Auckland.

SALESA: We saw the incumbent prime minister insist that he was still the rightful prime minister. We saw the doors of Parliament locked to the opposition party. And then we ended the day with two people claiming to be prime minister of Samoa.

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