| Office2: | Leader of the Tautua Samoa Party |
| Term Start2: | 22 December 2010 |
| Term End2: | 19 May 2011 |
| Deputy2: | Palusalue Faʻapo II |
| Predecessor2: | Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi |
| Successor2: | Palusalue Faʻapo II |
| Office3: | Minister of Agriculture |
| Primeminister3: | Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi |
| Term Start3: | 1998 |
| Term End3: | 20 March 2001 |
| Successor3: | Tuisugaletaua Sofara Aveau |
| Office4: | Minister of Justice |
| Primeminister4: | Tofilau Eti Alesana |
| Term Start4: | 18 May 1996 |
| Term End4: | 3 June 1998 |
| Predecessor4: | Fuimaono Lotomau |
| Successor4: | Molioo Teofilo Vaeluaga |
| Constituency Mp14: | Vaisigano No.1 |
| Parliament14: | Samoan |
| Term Start14: | 31 March 2006 |
| Term End14: | 2 May 2011 |
| Predecessor14: | Masoe Filisi |
| Successor14: | Tufuga Gafoleata Faitua |
| Constituency Mp15: | Falealupo |
| Parliament15: | Samoan |
| Term Start15: | 5 April 1991 |
| Term End15: | 2 March 2001 |
| Predecessor15: | A'eau Peniamina |
| Successor15: | A'eau Peniamina |
| Birth Date: | 25 March 1944 |
| Birth Place: | Western Samoa Trust Territory |
| Death Place: | New Zealand |
| Party: | Tautua Samoa Party (2008–2022) |
| Otherparty: | Human Rights Protection Party (until 2006) |
Vaʻai Papu Vailupe (25 March 1944 – 17 January 2022),[1] also known as Mafasolia Papu Vailupe,[2] was a Samoan politician and accountant who served as a Cabinet Minister. He was the leader of the Tautua Samoa Party from 2010 to 2011.[3] His father is former Prime Minister Vaʻai Kolone, who co-founded the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP).[4] His younger brother Asiata Sale'imoa Va'ai was leader of the Samoan Democratic United Party.[5]
Vaʻai was first elected to the Samoan Legislative Assembly at the 1991 election.[2] In 1996 he served as Parliamentary Undersecretary for Works, EPC, and the Water Authority.[2] After being re-elected in 1996, he was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Justice.[6] Between 1998 and 2001, he served as Minister of Agriculture.[2] He lost his seat in the 2001 election.[7]
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.[8] His political rival A'eau Peniamina later denied responsibility for the shooting.[9] Following the election he asked to join the Human Rights Protection Party,[10] but was unsuccessful. In April 2008 he agreed with other independent MPs to form a new political party.[11]
In December 2008 he became a founding member of the Tautua Samoa Party.[12] 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.[13] He was subsequently reinstated after the Supreme Court of Samoa overturned the law and declared the formation of new parties legal.[14]
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.[15] In March 2010, he joined Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi and Palusalue Fa’apo II in formally declaring his membership of the party and so was deemed to have resigned his seat.[16] However, the ruling Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) was unable to find a candidate for the resulting by-election, and on 2 May 2010 he was declared elected unopposed,[17] becoming the first non-HRPP MP to win a by-election.[18] In December 2010 he was appointed leader of the Tautua party.[3]
Vailupe was re-elected in the 2011 election, but the result was overturned by an electoral petition, which disqualified him for bribery and treating.[19] He was subsequently charged with thirteen counts of bribery.[20] In May 2012 he was convicted on two counts of bribery and one of treating,[21] and fined US$2500.[22]
In the wake of the 2021 Samoan constitutional crisis Vaʻai denounced the HRPP and its campaign against Samoa's judiciary.[23]
Vaʻai died in New Zealand on 17 January 2022.[24] [25] He was buried in Vaisala, Savaiʻi.[1]