(Reuters) -Samoa held a national election on Friday with the Pacific Island nation’s first female prime minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa seeking to return to office in a race against the long-serving leader she unseated in 2021, and her former party.

Polls closed at 3 p.m. on Friday (0200 GMT) after around 100,000 voters cast ballots to elect 50 lawmakers to parliament.

Fiame was one of the Pacific Islands’ few female leaders, and became known for her sceptical stance on China’s security ambitions in the region, and support for island nations to unite to resist pressure from outside powers.

She raised the international profile of the nation of 200,000 people by hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last year, focused on the impact of climate change in the Pacific.

Fiame bec

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