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Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Samoa & United Kingdom

Definitions

STAT Samoa United Kingdom HISTORY
Head of state Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi Queen Elizabeth II
Head of state > Profile <p>Former prime minister Tupua was elected head of state by parliament for a five-year term in 2007 on the death of paramount chief Malietoa Tanumafili II, who had been in office since independence. With the election of Tupua, Samoa switched from being a constitutional monarchy to being a republic. </p> <p>Born in 1938, Tupua is an academic historian and a member of one of the leading extended families of the country. </p> <p>He entered parliament as a Christian Democrat MP in 1966, and served as prime minister in 1976-82 and deputy prime minister in 1985-88. </p> <p>Elizabeth II became queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1952 upon the death of her father, George VI.</p> <p>She is the second longest serving head of state, after the Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who was crowned in 1946.</p> <p>She is also head of state of 16 independent countries including Canada and Australia.</p> <p>As a constitutional monarch, her role in the legislative process is largely ceremonial.</p>
Head of state > Summary Tupua first entered parliament in 1966 Queen Elizabeth is head of state of 16 countries
Prime minister Tuila&#039;epa Sailele Malielegaoi David Cameron
Prime minister > Profile <p>Prime Minister Tuila&#039;epa&#039;s ruling Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) gained a landslide victory in parliamentary polls in March 2011, heralding a fourth term for the premier. </p><p>The HRPP won 36 seats out of the 49 available in the Samoan parliament, the Fono. The opposition Tautua Samoa Party (TSP), contesting an election for the first time since its formation in 2008, won the remaining 13 seats. </p> <p>Mr Tuila&#039;epa won his seat unopposed, despite criticism over the government&#039;s handling of a deadly tsunami that struck the country in 2009. However, three of his cabinet ministers lost their seats in the election. </p> <p>He first became prime minister in 1998 when his predecessor, Tofilau Eti Alesana, resigned on health grounds after 16 years in the job. </p> <p>Born in 1945 and an economist by training, Mr Tuila&#039;epa was educated in Samoa and New Zealand, where he gained a master&#039;s degree - the first Samoan to do so. </p> <p>In 1978 he moved to Brussels to work for the European Economic Community. He entered the Fono two years later, while simultaneously working as a partner in the accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand. </p> <p>All but two of the seats in the Fono are reserved for ethnic Samoans and only the heads of extended families, known as &quot;matai&quot;, may stand for election to them. The Fono selects the prime minister. </p> <p>David Cameron became prime minister at the head of a coalition government on 11 May 2010, returning his centre-right Conservative Party to power after 13 years of rule by the centre-left Labour Party.</p> <p>Mr Cameron formed a partnership with the third party, the traditionally social liberal Liberal Democrats, after an inconclusive parliamentary election from which the Conservatives emerged with the largest number of seats, but without an absolute majority.</p> <p>It is the first formal coalition government in 70 years to govern the UK, where the electoral system usually guarantees a majority for the largest party.</p> <p>The partnership has proved fractious, with Mr Cameron at times seen as struggling to maintain discipline. Several constitutional reform projects - including plans for an elected upper house of parliament and changes to voting for the lower house - have fallen by the wayside as a result of deep differences between the two parties.</p> <p>Deep cuts</span> <p>On coming to power, the new PM was confronted by a daunting economic situation, with the UK only slowly emerging from a deep recession caused by the 2008 global financial collapse, and facing a rapidly mounting budget deficit.</p> <p>Mr Cameron promised that cutting the deficit would be his top priority. In October 2010, Mr Cameron&#039;s government announced a programme of deep cuts in government spending - the UK&#039;s largest in generations.</p> <p>In late 2013, improved growth estimates and employment figures suggested the economic gloom may be lifting, but concerns remained about the sustainability of the recovery, as well continuing pressure on household finances.</p> <p>All of this came against the background of the continuing crisis in the eurozone, and Mr Cameron has faced pressure from the right of his party to distance Britain further from any deeper European Union integration. </p> <p>The prime minister sought to ease this tension in 2013 by proposing a referendum on whether to leave the European Union after the next election, although this faces opposition from both the Liberal Democrats and Labour.</p> <p>Born the son of a wealthy stockbroker in 1966 in London, Mr Cameron was educated at Eton College - Britain&#039;s top private school - and Oxford University. Aged 43 on coming to power, he was the youngest prime minister since 1812.</p>
Prime minister > Summary Tuila&#039;epa Sailele Malielegaoi, in office since 1998 David Cameron heads a coalition government

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