Apia, Samoa – 28 August 2025 – Other than the weather conditions of intermittent downpours and moderate-to-fresh east-to-northeasterly wind flows, Samoa remains calm. It’s a public holiday today to give voters time to travel and prepare for tomorrows vote to elect a new government for the next five years.
For the first time in 63 years of political independence has Samoa faced an early election when the minority governments budget was rejected before the first reading on 27 May, prompting the dissolution of parliament on 3 June and a snap election eight months early.
The FAST Government, led by the first female Prime Minister had only been in power for barely four years; and after a battle to break the HRPPs power grip of thirty-eight years.
As the country prepares to elect a new government tomorrow, voters will be aligned mainly along family connections, party popularity and some are set to vote on the credibility of political promises through publicized party manifestos.
Despite restrictions imposed by electoral laws, Opposition and HRPP Leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi remained visible on social media.
In an interview with RNZI, he cautioned that Samoa would be in a “mess” should the country elect either Fiame or Laauli as its new leader. He referenced the political rift in the FAST governments three and a half years resulting in the early elections. The implication is for his comeback.
After mocking the FAST party’s roadshow campaigns as a foreign idea, Tuilaepa and HRPP had no option and ended up adopting the same approach even to the point of disrupting the FAST roadshows.
During these events, Tuilaepa outlined ambitious promises, such as the construction of a bridge—financed by China—to connect the main islands of Upolu and Savai’i. He also revived a forgotten pledge to build a tunnel to the remote Fagaloa Bay, a region long plagued by poor and treacherous road access due to its mountainous and challenging terrain. This promise remains as unfulfilled as the half-completed, now-abandoned Fagaloa health centre built by HRPP.
Public Scrutiny and Scepticism
At a HRPP roadshow in Aleipata last week, a senior Methodist church minister posed a pointed question to Tuilaepa and the party’s leadership: How could they promise a bridge to Savai’i when they had yet to address a dangerous road juncture in Tiavea village—a site of tragedy after a fatal car accident caused by flood-damaged roads? The minister also pressed for the cost of the proposed bridge to Savaii and questioned whether any current HRPP candidates would still be alive to see the project through to completion in 25 years.
While the FAST party’s election promises parallel those of rival parties, they are paired with strategic funding plans such as the digital finance markets, carbon credits and investment utilizing the available liquidity of around $600M to invest in national projects such as a revived national airline.
In contrast, Tuilaepa’s campaign has been marked by his familiar dismissive and arrogant tone—labelling opponents as uneducated, incapable and inexperienced to run a government. It is a pattern that has persisted for the past five weeks that manifests a once-respected leader’s desperate struggle to regain power.
Impending mess said Tuilaepa
Tuilaepa has now warned of an impending “mess” if Fiame or Laauli is elected to lead the country in tomorrow’s election.
Despite the many projects implemented under his 22 years as PM, Tuilaepa has been criticized of nepotism and corruption and when he and HRPP lost the 2021 elections, his son headed the country’s Treasury and his son in law the Auditor General.
The three controversial bills passed in December 2020 hit at the core of the rule of law and threatened to reopen longstanding Lands and Titles Court decisions and predicted to cause social disharmony within families and villages.
The results of a forensic audit of certain development projects under Tuilaepa and HRPP’s guard are still being awaited. Part of it is a National ID project where $50 tala was paid per person to be registered and counted as part of the 2019 census. Some people were paid more than once, many did not get $50 and were not counted. The project remains unfinished, and the final count posted an unrealistic jump in the country’s population and required a readjustment when the FAST government settled in in 2021.
Will the country get into a mess as Tuilaepa warned?
In three years, the FAST government moved the economy to its current resounding state.
When Tuilaepa lost the election, Samoa’s international debt stood at $1.02 billion, and Samoa could not borrow anymore.
The FAST made the commitment to pay the debts as not to pass the debts on to the next generation. The national debt now stands at $700m with a window to borrow again for major development projects.
The GDP that averaged $1.5 billion now stands at $3.55bn and still growing.
As of the CBS Monetary Policy Statement July 2025, Samoa’s foreign reserves that averaged between $600m and $700m under HRPP has now achieved a record high of $1.5 billion with 15 months of import cover.
Maybe the only mess will be what Tuilaepa has created, and out of his own making, his legacy that was once respected, has quickly decimated into cipher; like how quickly political power can dissipate and vanish.
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