Samoa dissolves parliament after leader unable to pass budget
FILE PHOTO: Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mata'afa speaking at the annual Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey, in London. March 10, 2025. Aaron Chown/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Samoa's parliament will dissolve on June 3 and the Pacific Island nation will hold an election at an unspecified date, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa said on Wednesday.
Fiame was unable to gain enough support to pass budget legislation in parliament on Monday and said in a statement that she had advised Samoa's head of state, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, that parliament should be dissolved.
A dissolution notice was signed and gazetted on Wednesday.
Fiame was elected in 2021, one of the Pacific's few female leaders, and faced a months-long court battle when the incumbent who had held power for two decades disputed the result.
Unlike her predecessor, Fiame was sceptical of Chinese investment, and raised the international profile of the nation of 200,000 people by hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last year.
Fiame was expelled from her political party, FAST, in January in a factional dispute.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; Editing by Michael Perry)
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