Asia | Play FAST and lose

Samoa’s long-serving prime minister is struggling to cling to power

The Pacific island is poised to appoint its first female head of government

|WELLINGTON

“I AM APPOINTED by God,” to lead Samoa, said Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the world’s second-longest-serving prime minister (after Cambodia’s Hun Sen), in response to protests this month demanding that he step down. “They should go to a church and pray instead of protesting in front of the courthouse. The judiciary has no authority over my appointment as prime minister.”

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Play FAST and lose”

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