WELLINGTON – Samoa went to the polls Friday in a critical election that could decide the future of the Pacific Island nation’s first woman leader, who called the vote after her government collapsed in May.

Counting was scheduled to begin next Monday and run until Friday, Sept. 5, before any results are announced.

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The knife-edge election follows months of political tumult and the outcome could set a fresh direction for Samoa’s geopolitical engagement in the contested South Pacific Ocean.

A failed vote prompted the snap election

Samoa’s next national election was due in April 2026 but Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa’s abrupt admission that her minority government couldn’t continue prompted the early poll. Fiamē’s dissolution of Parliament came when her budget

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