Samoa’s election: Voting has begun after months of turmoil, here is everything you need to know

A view of Apia, Samoa, where parliamentary elections are taking place on Friday amid cost-of-living pressures and political instability. Photograph: Rudy Bartley/The Guardian

Samoa went to the polls on Friday in a national election called early by the caretaker prime minister, Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa, after months of political turmoil.

Official campaigning ceased on Sunday with billboards blacked out, posters taken down and social media endorsements suspended under strict orders from the electoral commissioner.