Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown expected to return to power following election

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — 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. 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.

“Today my heart is full of gratitude,” Brown wrote on Facebook. “Thank you to everyone who came out and voted, for taking part and making your voice heard. This is what makes our country strong.”

In the seat yet to be decided, the incumbent, a member of Brown’s party, is competing with an independent candidate.

Ahead of the ballot held Wednesday in the islands, local news outlets reported that inflation and the cost of living were voters’ chief preoccupations. The war in Iran has prompted economic anxiety throughout the South Pacific, where tiny and remote nations are heavily dependent on imported products, including diesel for power generation.

Brown’s opponents hoped dissatisfaction about the price of goods, water, electricity and transport would prompt a closer election. However, preliminary results released by a government agency showed the Cook Islands United Party, which split from Brown’s group in 2018, had won just four seats, up from three in 2022.

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.

It will be a second term as prime minister for Brown, 63, who entered Parliament in 2010 after a career as a public servant and property developer. He won his seat of Takuvaine with a large majority in this week’s vote.

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. The close ties require Cook Islands leaders to speak with Wellington before making pacts with other countries that might affect New Zealand.

When Brown signed a series of cooperation deals with Beijing in February 2025, he defended his decision not to consult Wellington about them. New Zealand disagreed and an escalating standoff led Wellington to freeze millions of dollars in funding to Cook Islands last June, citing security concerns about the range and contents of the Beijing deals.

Frosty relations eased in April when the two countries signed a defense pact clarifying their ties and pledging that New Zealand would be Cook Islands’ “partner of choice regarding defense and security matters.” Wellington feared the prospect of China occupying that role.

In recent years, Beijing has vied with Western powers for influence and closer ties with Pacific Island leaders whose tiny and often aid-reliant countries lie in a vast, lucrative and strategically important ocean.

When relations broke down last year, some Cook Islanders, including then opposition leader Pupuke-Brown, protested the prime minister’s actions. Pupuke-Brown accused Brown of jeopardizing ties with New Zealand, where thousands of Cook Islanders live, work and study.

However, the resumption of aid from Wellington this year appeared to have quashed the outcry.

Brown is also a proponent of Cook Islands developing a deep sea mining industry in its large and possibly rich exclusive economic zone. The matter has divided leaders throughout the Pacific, with detractors warning the practice could harm fragile ocean ecosystems.