{"id":32069,"date":"2021-05-14T09:20:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T00:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/may\/14\/samoa-is-experiencing-a-bloodless-coup-the-pacifics-most-stable-democracy-is-in-trouble"},"modified":"2021-05-14T09:20:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T00:20:48","slug":"samoa-is-experiencing-a-bloodless-coup-the-pacifics-most-stable-democracy-is-in-trouble-fiona-ey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=32069","title":{"rendered":"Samoa is experiencing a bloodless coup. The Pacific\u2019s most stable democracy is in trouble | Fiona Ey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government\u2019s actions after last month\u2019s elections call democracy into question and set a dangerous precedent for developing nations<\/p>\n<p>Samoa has long been touted as a beacon of democracy and political stability in the Pacific, a region troubled by military coups and civil strife. The prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, is the world\u2019s second longest serving prime minister, having held the office for more than 22 years.<\/p>\n<p>But the latest election in the country, held last month, saw the most serious challenge to Malielegaoi\u2019s ruling Human Rights Protection party (HRPP), and has left the country without a clear result. In the weeks since, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/may\/05\/second-vote-called-in-latest-twist-in-samoas-most-dramatic-election-in-history\">government has used every method available to it<\/a> \u2013 and some that arguably are not \u2013 to hold on to power. What the government is doing is effectively a bloodless coup.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/may\/14\/samoa-is-experiencing-a-bloodless-coup-the-pacifics-most-stable-democracy-is-in-trouble\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government\u2019s actions after last month\u2019s elections call democracy into question and set a dangerous precedent for developing nationsSamoa has long been touted as a beacon of democracy and political stability in the Pacific, a region troubled by mili&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2183,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,936,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-samoa","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32070,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32069\/revisions\/32070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}