| Lautimuia Uelese Vaʻai | |
| Office4: | Minister of Finance |
| Primeminister4: | Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa |
| Term Start4: | 1 October 2023 |
| Predecessor4: | Mulipola Anarosa Ale Molioo |
| Constituency Mp15: | Vaimauga 3 |
| Parliament15: | Samoan |
| Term Start15: | 7 March 2023 |
| Predecessor15: | Tapunuu Niko Lee Hang |
| Birth Date: | [1] |
Lautimuia Afoa Uelese Vaʻai (born) is a Samoan politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Samoa. He is a member of the FAST Party. He is a nephew of former Prime Minister Vaʻai Kolone.[2]
Lautimuia is from the villages of Magiagi and Vaisala and trained as an accountant at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand.[3] He worked as a lecturer at the National University of Samoa and as a senior civil servant before being appointed chief executive of the Samoa Shipping Corporation in November 2017.[3] [4]
He contested the 2016 Samoan general election in the Vaimauga West 1 Constituency as a candidate for the Human Rights Protection Party.[5]
In February 2023 he was selected as the FAST Party candidate for the 2023 Vaimauga 3 by-election.[1] [2] [6] He won the by-election, defeating his HRPP rival by 400 votes in the preliminary count.[7] [8] He was sworn in as an MP on 7 March 2023.[9]
In a cabinet reshuffle on 6 September 2023 he was appointed Minister of Finance, replacing Mulipola Anarosa Ale Molioo from 1 October 2023.[10] [11]