Jim Marurai (9 July 1947 – November 2020) was a Cook Islands politician who served as Prime Minister of the Cook Islands. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Personal life Marurai was born in Ivirua, Mangaia. He attended Ivirua and Oneroa Primary school and then Tereora College on Rarotonga and Napier Boys' High School in New Zealand. He later studied to be a teacher at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Marurai's wife, Tuaine Marurai, died on 14 September 2005 in Auckland, New Zealand at the age of 56 after suffering from cancer. She was buried on her home island of Mangaia. In March 2020 Marurai went missing from his home but was found after two days. He died in the first week of November 2020 in his home in Ivirua. Political career Marurai was first elected to Parliament in a by-election in 1994. He served as an opposition backbencher for his first term, and joined Norman George in splitting from the Democrats to form the New Alliance Party. Following the 1999 election he was appointed Minister of Education in the coalition Cabinets of Geoffrey Henry and Joe Williams. He retained the portfolio under both succeeding Prime Ministers, Terepai Maoate and Robert Woonton. Prime Minister Marurai was re-elected at the 2004 election. When Prime Minister Robert Woonton was expelled from the Democratic party for forming a coalition with the Cook Islands Party, Marurai joined him in the newly formed Demo Party Tumu (later known as Cook Islands First). When an electoral petition found Woonton's seat was a dead tie, Woonton resigned, and Marurai was elected Prime Minister. Initially he governed in coalition with the Cook Islands Party as part of a power-sharing deal which would see CIP leader Geoffrey Henry become Prime Minister after two years, but in August 2005 the agreement broke down and Marurai formed a new coalition with the Democrats. Terepai Maoate became Deputy Prime Minister again, and a month later the remaining CIP Cabinet Ministers were sacked and replaced by Democrats. In October 2005 Marurai suspended Police Minister Peri Vaevae Pare from Cabinet over an allegation of wrongful use of public funds; Pare was subsequently asked to resign after he was convicted in January 2006. In March 2006 two government MP's crossed the floor and sided with the opposition in an unsuccessful plot to bring down the government. The High Commissioner to