Samoa is a parliamentary democracy with a unicameral legislative assembly consisting of 49 members of which 5 are to be held by women.
General elections are held every 5 years with the most recent in March 2016.The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) is the current ruling party with only one opposition party in parliament, the Tautua Party.
Samoa has a Westminster legal system based on the English legal system as adopted by many Commonwealth States.