Samoa's former prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has finally conceded defeat, following the Court of Appeals’ recent decision that upheld the victory of Fa'atuatua I Le Atua Samoa us Tasi (FAST) in the April 9 election.
The court's decision, which ended the nation’s political crisis, has paved the way for Fiame Naomi Mata’afa’s assumption of office as Samoa’s first female prime minister.
RNZ Pacific reported that Tuilaepa has asked Fiame to give him and his government seven days to move out of his office.
In an interview with TVNZ, Fiame said she was ready to buckle down to work and prepare the government’s budget as the first order of business.
“Like most things, you have to get your house in order and I think making sure that the public service servants feel confident that as a new government it's the business of government they have a role to play, but they also need to understand that this is a new government and we have a program that we would like to implement,” she told TVNZ’s Breakfast show Monday.
“Government work, it's not that sexy and our first order of business of course is to get a budget in so that government operations would go.”
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