ʻAkilisi Pohiva

(1941-2019)

Former Prime Minister of Tonga

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Samiuela ʻAkilisi Pōhiva (7 April 1941 – 12 September 2019) was a Tongan pro-democracy activist and politician. Pohiva, the leader of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands (DPFI), served as the Prime Minister of Tonga from 2014 to his death in 2019. He was only the fourth commoner to serve as Prime Minister (after Shirley Baker in the 1880s, Siosateki Tonga in the 1890s and Feleti Sevele in the 2000s), and the first commoner to be elected to that position by Parliament rather than appointed by the King. On 25 August 2017, he was dismissed by the King along with the rest of parliament with fresh elections to be held on 16 November, in which his party won with enough seats to form a government.