The East-West Center is winding up a two-day virtual meeting of leaders from nations and territories across the Pacific, though notably absent was a leader from Samoa. That's because there is a political standoff between Prime Minister-elect Fiame Naomi Mata’afa and long-ruling Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi.
Last week, Mata’afa and her supporters showed up at parliament to form a new government but were not allowed inside. She and her FAST Party later took oaths and appointed ministers in a ceremony held under a tent in front of the locked Parliament, actions that opponents said were illegal.
Malielegaoi, who was prime minister for 22 years before his unexpected election loss, doesn't appear ready to give up power.
To help get us up to speed on the resolution of a long list of legal challenges, The Conversation reached out to Ken Aiono, a longtime broadcaster with Radio Samoa and Samoa International News, as well as the host of a Samoan show at KNDI in Honolulu. Aiono discussed the dynamics of resolving the constitutional crisis playing out in Samoa.
The virtual meeting was attended by leaders or their designees from the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Hawai‘i, the Marshall Islands, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and the Solomon Islands—according to the East-West Center. Historically, the summit has convened about every three years.
This story aired on The Conversation on June 2, 2021.
