Samoa rivals both claim leadership

Samoa’s political crisis intensified yesterday as an opposition party leader held a ceremony to form a government outside a locked parliament building after the incumbent prime minister refused to cede power. Fiame Naomi Mataafa was set to become Samoa’s first female prime minister after the country’s top court upheld the election result against a challenge supported by incumbent, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi. An April election gave the opposition a oneseat majority. However, Samoa’s head of state, Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, suspended the hearing scheduled to swear in the new MPs yesterday. Ms Mataafa is expected to reframe Samoa’s relations with China after saying she would scrap a $100-million Beijingbacked port development.