Government Samoa is an independent state within the Commonwealth . The 1960 constitution, which went into effect in 1962, provides for a parliamentary system of government, with a constitutional head of state, a single-chamber legislative assembly, the Fono, and a prime minister and cabinet drawn from and responsible to the assembly. The head of state is normally elected by the assembly for a five-year term, but the present holder of the office has been elected for life. The head of state appoints the prime minister and cabinet on the basis of assembly support. The Fono traditionally has a life of three years, but it was extended to five years in 1993.
All political parties are personality-based groupings.
The original inhabitants were Polynesians, and the first Europeans to reach the island group of Samoa, in 1722, were Dutch. In the 19th century, Germany, the UK, and the USA had conflicting interests in the islands and administered them jointly from 1889 until 1899, when they were divided into American Samoa and Samoa. Samoa was a German colony until World War I and from 1920 was administered by New Zealand, first as a League of Nations mandate and from 1946 as a United Nations trust territory. Independence Samoa was granted internal self-government gradually until it achieved full independence, within the Commonwealth, on 1 January 1962. The office of head of state was held jointly by two traditional rulers, but on the death of one of them, the other, Malietoa Tanumafili II, became the sole head of state for life.