Parliamentary Elections 29 August 2025

On 29 August 2025, Samoa held a snap general election following the failure to pass budget legislation in May of the same year (RNZ Pacific 2025; Reuters 2025). During this election, all 51 seats in the Fono —the unicameral parliament of Samoawere contested. Members are elected via the first-past-the-post system for a five-year term (IFES 2025). Parties must secure at least eight seats to be recognized under standing orders as a parliamentary party (Herr 2025). Seats each represent a territorial constituency with six additional seats allocated to certain constituencies and two more reserved for urban constituencies (IFES 2025).

Based on a 2013 constitutional amendment, women are required to hold at least 10 per cent of the seats in Parliament, making Samoa the only country in the Pacific to have a gender quota at the national level (Palmieri 2025). In case the quota is not met after the election, the results must be reviewed to fill as many additional seats from the highest polling losing female candidates (Herr 2025).

Elections are administered by the Office of the Electoral Commission, which is composed of the electoral commissioner (supported by an executive assistant, an internal auditor and a public relations officer) and five divisions: Voter Registration; Electoral Operations; Legal Policy/Investigative; Corporate Services ; and ICT (Electoral Commission n. d.).

The former prime minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa along with other members of the caretaker government formed a new political party, the Samoa Uniting Party (SUP), to contest the election. Despite fielding 26 candidates (Tinetali-Fiavaai 2025a), this party won only three seats, one of which was secured by Mataʻafa and another by the former minister of public enterprises (Chand 2025). The Samoa United in Faith (FAST) party won a majority with 30 seats out of 51. The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), which had ruled Samoa for almost four decades until 2021, won 14 seats although its vote share was only 4 per cent less than FAST’s party nationwide (Tinetali-Fiavaai 2025b), a result of the first-past-the-post system. As the SUP party did not manage to reach the eight-seat threshold, the new Parliament is composed of two parties and the rest are private members (Herr 2025).

The country experienced an outbreak of dengue fever during the campaign, with 8,000 cases and six deaths in the run up to polling. Schools were closed until further notice, but a state of emergency was not declared. Until a new administration could be formed, the caretaker government was constrained in its response to use only 25 per cent of the previous year’s budget (Rivers 2025). Additional caring responsibilities conceivably impacted some voters’ participation—flexible working arrangements were introduced for public sector workers (Rivers 2025)—but turnout was high (see below) and electoral operations went ahead unchanged.

Voter and candidate registration processes experienced several problems. Four cases of voter impersonation were investigated, as individuals attempted to register using someone else’s documents, while the same email address was used by more than 100 people to register online (Fruean 2025). Not all candidates were treated equally and some faced struggles obtaining the necessary endorsement from village representatives to stand in the election (Tupou 2025). Legal disputes over results being very common—after the 2021 election, 20 per cent of seats were challenged and went to trial—the special elections’ court set a November 2025 deadline for hearing challenges (Herr 2025).

Regarding women’s representation, five female MPs were elected (IPU n.d.), that is, one seat less than the required quota, necessitating a review of results (as took place following the 2021 election and subsequent by-elections, after which the parliament was expanded to 54 seats, with seven held by women (IPU n.d.).

Turnout in 2025 was 93.09 per cent, the highest since data became available (IFES 2025; International IDEA n.d.). The Electoral Act 2019 introduced compulsory voting in 2019. This was first implemented in the 2021 elections, when turnout reached 69.47 per cent—lower than in previous elections without compulsory voting (International IDEA n.d.). 

Innovations

This was the first election in Samoa after the amendment of electoral laws in 2024 allowing Samoan citizens living overseas to register online. Overseas voters had to travel to Samoa to complete a biometric check as part of the registration process. Moreover, there is a requirement to have resided in Samoa for at least one-third of the time period to be eligible to vote (Fonua 2025).

To facilitate voter turnout, employers were reminded to comply with 2023 amendments to the Labour and Employment Relations Act 2013, particularly concerning public holiday pay entitlements (Peato-Ale 2025).