ʻAlipate Tuʻivanuavou Vaea, Lord Vaea (born September 19, 1957) is a

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

n politician and a member of the Tongan nobility. He has served as Master of the Royal Household and "long-time palace archivist", as well as being Chairman of the Tonga Traditions Committee. He was bestowed the title of 16th Lord Vaea and 2nd Baron Vaea of Houma upon the death of his father, ʻAlipate Halakilangi Tauʻalupeoko Vaea Tupou, the previous Vaea, on 7 June 2009. His mother is

Baroness Tuputupu Vaea Tuputupu -‘o-Pulotu Vaea, The Honourable Baroness Tuputupu ‘o Pulotu Vaea of Houma (née Ma'afu-'o-Tukuialahi; 14 October 1928 – 29 July 2021) was a Tongan noblewoman and royal. Vaea and her late husband, former Prime Minister of Tonga Baron ...

. Vaea is the brother of the present Queen of Tonga Nanasipauʻu Tukuʻaho and the brother-in-law (and second cousin) of King

Tupou VI Tupou VI (ʻAho‘eitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho; born 12 July 1959) is King of Tonga. The youngest child of King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, he served as Prime Minister of Tonga from 2000 to 2006. Following his elder brother's accession to the ...

. This enabled him to rank among the small number of nobles entitled to elect and be elected among, the Nobles' Representatives to

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. Thus he began his career in national politics when he was elected to Parliament as a Nobles' Representative for

Tongatapu Tongatapu is the main island of Tonga and the site of its capital, Nukuʻalofa, Nukualofa. It is located in Tonga's southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country's most populous island, with 74,611 residents (2016), 70.5% o ...

in the November 2010 general election. He was then appointed Minister for Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries in the Cabinet of new

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Lord Tuʻivakanō Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

. On 1 May 2012, he received, in addition, the Training, Employment, Youth and Sports portfolio. Tuʻivanuavou was re-elected as a noble's representative in the

2014 Tongan general election General elections were held in Tonga on 27 November 2014. All twenty-six elected seats in the single-chamber Legislative Assembly were up for election, although the monarch, acting on the advice of his Prime Minister, retains the possibility t ...

, and became the unofficial leader of the opposition. In August 2016 Tuʻivanuavou repeatedly promised to bring a no confidence motion against Prime Minister

ʻAkilisi Pōhiva Samiuela ʻAkilisi Pōhiva (7 April 1941 – 12 September 2019) was a Tongan pro-democracy activist and politician. A key leader of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands (DPFI), he served as the Prime Minister of Tonga from 2014 to his ...

, but ultimately failed to do so. A later attempt in early 2017 was defeated, 10 votes to 14. He sought re-election at the

2017 Tongan general election General elections were held in Tonga on 16 November 2017 to elect 17 of the 26 seats to the Legislative Assembly. King Tupou VI dissolved the Assembly on 25 August 2017 on the advice of its Speaker, Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō, who claimed tha ...

, but tied the vote with Lord Vahaʻi and lost the subsequent coin-toss. He was re-elected at the 2021 election. On 1 September 2022 he was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs, replacing

Sangster Saulala Sione Sangster Saulala (born 9 April 1974" ...

, whose election had been voided for bribery. Following the resignation of Sovaleni as Prime Minister in December 2024, he resigned from Cabinet.

Patronages

* Former

Tonga Rugby Union The Tonga Rugby Union is the governing body of the sport of rugby union in Tonga. They are members of Oceania Rugby. There is a rugby union playing population of fewer than 800 out of a total population of 100,000. They were formed in 1923, and j ...

Chairman. * Former

Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance The Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA) was set up in 2002 as a basis of co-operation between the Fiji Rugby Union, Fiji, Samoa Rugby Football Union, Samoa and Tonga Rugby Football Union, Tonga Rugby Unions. Niue Rugby Union, Niue and the Cook Is ...

Chairman.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaea 1957 births Members of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga Agriculture ministers of Tonga Fisheries ministers of Tonga Forestry ministers of Tonga Interior ministers of Tonga Sports ministers of Tonga Youth ministers of Tonga Tongan nobles Living people University of Auckland alumni Massey University alumni People educated at St Faith's School People educated at The Leys School Children of prime ministers of Tonga