Vaʻai Papu Vailupe (25 March 1944 – 17 January 2022), also known as Mafasolia Papu Vailupe, was a

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

n politician and accountant who served as a

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

. He was the leader of the

Tautua Samoa Party The Tautua Samoa Party () was a political party in Samoa. The party's policies include economic development, particularly in the agricultural sector, public service reform, a limit on the number of Associate Ministers, and a reduction in the ter ...

(TSP) from 2010 to 2011. His father was former Prime Minister

Vaʻai Kolone Vaai Kolone (11 November 1911 – 20 April 2001) was the fourth prime minister of Samoa and a founder of the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) in Samoa. He served as prime minister twice, first between 13 April and 18 September 1982, and then ...

, who co-founded the

Human Rights Protection Party The Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP, ) is a Samoan political party. It was founded in 1979 and dominated Samoan party politics for decades thereafter, leading every government until their defeat in 2021. Former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele ...

(HRPP). His younger brother Asiata Saleʻimoa Vaʻai was leader of the Samoan Democratic United Party.

Political career

Vaʻai was first elected to the Samoan Legislative Assembly at the 1991 election. In 1996 he served as Parliamentary Undersecretary for Works, EPC, and the Water Authority. After being re-elected in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, he was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Justice. Between 1998 and 2001, he served as Minister of Agriculture. He lost his seat in the 2001 election. He ran as an independent in his father's old seat of Vaisigano No. 1 in the 2006 election. Shortly before the election he was shot in the neck in a politically-motivated shooting. His political rival A'eau Peniamina later denied responsibility for the shooting. Following the election he asked to join the Human Rights Protection Party, but was unsuccessful. In April 2008 he agreed with other independent MPs to form a new political party. In December 2008 he became a founding member of the

. As a result, in May 2009 he was one of nine Tautua MPs declared to have resigned their seats under an anti-party hopping law. He was subsequently reinstated after the

Supreme Court of Samoa The Supreme Court of Samoa () is the superior court dealing with the administration of justice in Samoa. It was established by Part VI of the Constitution of Samoa. It consists of the chief justice of Samoa and other judges as appointed by the h ...

overturned the law and declared the formation of new parties legal. In January 2010 new anti-party-hopping laws came into force, barring MPs from declaring their support for political parties or organizations with political aims other than the party they were elected for. In March 2010, he joined

Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi (born April 1967) is a Samoan politician and member of the Legislative Assembly of Samoa. He is the founder of the Tautua Samoa Party. Lealailepule was first elected to Parliament at the 2006 Samoan general election, ...

and Palusalue Fa’apo II in formally declaring his membership of the party and so was deemed to have resigned his seat. However, the ruling

(HRPP) was unable to find a candidate for the resulting

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

, and on 2 May 2010 he was declared elected unopposed, becoming the first non-HRPP MP to win a by-election. In December 2010 he was appointed leader of the Tautua party. Vailupe was re-elected in the 2011 election, but the result was overturned by an electoral petition, which disqualified him for bribery and treating. He was subsequently charged with thirteen counts of bribery. In May 2012 he was convicted on two counts of bribery and one of treating, and fined US$2500.

Later life and death

In the wake of the

2021 Samoan constitutional crisis A constitutional crisis began in Samoa on 22 May 2021 when O le Ao o le Malo (Head of State) Tuimalealiʻifano Vaʻaletoʻa Sualauvi II issued a proclamation purporting to prevent the Legislative Assembly from meeting in the wake of the gen ...

Vaʻai denounced the HRPP and its campaign against Samoa's judiciary. Vaʻai died in New Zealand on 17 January 2022. He was buried in Vaisala, Savaiʻi.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vailupe, Va'ai Papu 1944 births 2022 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of Samoa Government ministers of Samoa Human Rights Protection Party politicians Tautua Samoa Party politicians Samoan politicians convicted of crimes Children of prime ministers