Feleti Sevele

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Prime Minister of Tonga
Feleti Vakaʻuta Sevele BS BA MA PhD

Incumbent
Assumed office 30 March 2006
Monarch	Taufa'ahau Tupou IV George Tupou V
Preceded by	'Aho'eitu 'Unuaki'otonga Tuku'aho

Born	1945
Political party	Independent

Feleti Vakaʻuta Sevele (born c. 1945) is the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tonga.

He began his high school education at Apifoʻou College in Tonga, then went to school in Fiji at St John's College in Levuka on the island of Ovalau, and the Marist Brothers High School in Suva. He then attended St Bede's College in Christchurch, New Zealand, before going to the University of Canterbury where he graduated with a BSc in Math, a BA, an MA and a PhD in Economic Geography.

He was elected as one of nine People's Representatives to the Legislative Assembly or Fale Alea in 1999 and re-elected in 2002 and in 2005. He was appointed Minister for Labour, Commerce and Industries. As Minister he negotiated Tonga's becoming a member of the World Trade Organization in December 2005. In early 2006 he presented an Employment Relations Bill to Cabinet, based on the Fijian Bill of the same name, as a response to the public service strike of 2005.

He was appointed to the Prime Minister's position after the sudden resignation of ʻAhoʻeitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho (at that time commonly known as: ʻUlukālala Lavaka Ata) on February 11, 2006. His coming to this appointment was six months after a series of pro-democracy protests that called for a lesser role in government for the royal family. Sevele's role was made permanent by King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, when he appointed Dr Sevele as the first citizen Prime Minister of Tonga on 30 March 2006. Sevele is the country's first non-noble Prime Minister.

On September 19, 2007, he was received by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Malacañang. He attended the Asian Development Bank's "Mobilizing Aid for Trade" conference (September 18 to 20).^[1]

Following the resignation of Finance Minister Siosiua 'Utoikamanu, Sevele temporarily took over his portfolio on February 26, 2008^[2] until 'Otenifi Afu'alo Matoto was appointed as Finance Minister on March 20.^[3]