Jim Marurai

Jim Marurai ( born July 9, 1947 in Ivirua on Mangaia ) is a politician of the Cook Islands and was from 2004 to 2010 tenth Prime Minister of the island nation.

Marurai comes from the island of Mangaia, the Tereora attended college in Nikao on Rarotonga and the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Later, he was a teacher at the School of Oneroa on Mangaia.

In 1994 he was first elected to parliament for the Democratic Party and in 1999 was Minister of Education since June. In November 2004, he and other members of the DP, the Party Demo Tumu ( "true democrats", later name Cook Islands First Party ), which in 2006 broke up again. On 14 December 2004 he was elected by Parliament with 14:9 votes for Prime Minister and remained until the defeat of the Democrats in the 2010 elections in office. He is also Member of Parliament for the constituency Ivirua.