SORE LOSERS

Samoa’s First Female Leader Forced to Swear In Inside Tent After Being Locked Out of Parliament

The caretaker government refused to open parliament to allow the transition to take place.

What should have been a historic moment for the Pacific nation of Samoa turned into a ridiculous farce Monday. The country was set to swear in its first ever female prime minister—but, when she turned up at parliament for the ceremony, she found that she was locked out and had to take her oath in a makeshift tent outside of the building. Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s Faith in the One True God (FAST) Party won a very narrow election victory last month, and Monday’s ceremony was due to bring four decades of rule by the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) to an end. However, the caretaker government refused to reopen parliament to allow the transition to take place, and FAST turned up Monday to find the building locked and empty. “I think a coup would be accurate,” said party spokesman Lance Apulu. “Bloodless, but they are actually coups.” The party went ahead with the al fresco swearing-in ceremony, but it’s not clear that it will be deemed legitimate under the constitution.