Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown is expected to lead the South Pacific nation’s government for a second term after his party won more seats than any other group in this week’s election. Voting continued for one of 24 Parliamentary seats in the country of 17,000 people, which is made up of 15 islands.

Election Results

Bad weather prevented electoral officers from reaching the island of Nassau earlier in the week and results there were expected late Friday New Zealand time. However, Brown’s Cook Islands Party, a nationalist group that has governed since 2010, was already celebrating victory after winning 12 seats which promised a fifth term in power.

A 13-seat majority is required to form a government, but Brown’s party has joined with independent lawmakers to pass laws before. The socially liberal Democratic Party, which held five seats and led the opposition before, fell out of Parliament altogether. In an upset, party leader Tina Pupuke-Browne lost her seat by three votes, ending eight years in office.

International Relations

The result indicated Brown had survived unscathed a saga that began in 2025, when he quarreled with New Zealand’s government over a suite of deals he signed with Beijing, without first consulting Wellington, Cook Islands’ biggest funder. Cook Islands is a self-governing country with a 60-year free association relationship to New Zealand, which means it’s defended by New Zealand’s military, and its citizens hold New Zealand passports.

Original reporting: Alexandria, VA News – WTOP News — read the source article.