The Pacific nation's political crisis has intensified after the leader of the opposition party held a ceremony to form government outside a locked parliament following the incumbent prime minister refusal to cede power.
The forum's incoming secretary general, Henry Puna, said its members were closely following events in Samoa, RNZ reported today.
It was willing to offer support and step in to help if it is asked, Mr Puna, a former Cook Islands Prime Minister says.
He also called for a moment of reflection and solidarity across the Pacific Islands Forum for the people of Samoa, where post-election events are making global headlines.
“I ask each of us across our member nations to keep the people of Samoa in our thoughts and prayers at this time, knowing that Samoa’s sovereign process and the world-renowned Fa’a Samoa will prevail at this critical moment in their history.”
A series of twists and turns since April's election gave the FAST opposition party a one-seat parliamentary majority has culminated in a power struggle between the courts and the head of state in the Pacific nation, a supporter of China in recent years.
FAST leader Fiame Naomi Mataafa was set to become Samoa's first female Prime Minister after the country's top court upheld the election result against a challenge supported by incumbent Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.
However, Samoa's head of state, Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, made the rare move on the weekend of suspending the parliamentary hearing scheduled to swear in the elected members on Monday.
The Government supported that suspension, declining to abide by a subsequent ruling from the Supreme Court that the swearing in ceremony should go ahead.
In a Facebook post on Monday, FAST deputy leader Laaulialemalietoa Polataivao Schmidt said:
"Democracy is inseparable from human rights which are inalienable by our laws as well as by international covenants that we have sworn to uphold. Democracy must prevail, always."
Tuilaepa told reporters in the capital Apia on Monday that only the head of state could convene parliament in the nation of 200,000.
"We remain in this role and operate business as usual," he said.
Samoa has been a close ally of China during Tuilaepa's more than two-decades rule as leader.
Fiame is expected to reframe Samoa's relations with China after telling Reuters last week she would shelve a $US100 million ($NZ138 million) Beijing-backed port development, calling the project excessive for a small country already heavily indebted to China.
Fiame, a former Deputy Prime Minister who split with the government last year after opposing changes to Samoa's constitution and judicial system, said she wanted to retain good relations with Beijing and Washington.
Her supporters gathered outside parliament early yesterday, singing songs from Samoa's independence movement more than 50 years ago, reported local media.
FAST members then gathered in a tent outside the locked parliament to confirm the new government members in a ceremony that Tuilaepa described as "treason", local media reported.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that the results of the election should be respected.
"All we are doing here is calling for the outcome and the wishes of the people of Samoa to be upheld and that's obviously the work the judiciary is doing right now."
- RNZ and Reuters
