Career
He is a graduate of International Maritime Law Institute at the University of Malta (2001). He represented the Nui district in the Parliament of Tuvalu from 2006 to 2010. Italeli was first elected in the Tuvaluan general election, 2006.
From 2006 to 2010 he was Minister of Education and Sports, and Health, in the government of the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Apisai Ielemia.
He remained as minister until 2010. When he was appointed as governor-general.
Italeli was elected to represent Nui in the Parliament of Tuvalu on a non-partisan basis. This lack of alignment is not unusual in the politics of Tuvalu.
Unusually for Tuvalu, Italeli represented a constituency where trilingualism is a feature, since many inhabitants of Nui originate from Kiribati, and thus speak Gilbertese, in addition to Tuvaluan and English, the fluency of which varies among local people.
The opposition thereafter held a majority of seats (eight to seven) and immediately called for the Prime Minister to advise that parliament be reconvened. Telavi responded that, under the constitution, parliament was required to convene only once a year and he was thus under no obligation to advise the to summon it until December 2013. The opposition turned to Italeli and, on 3 July, he exercised his reserve powers by summoning parliament, against the Prime Minister"s wishes, on 30 July.
The opposition subsequently appealed again to the, who then, on 1 August, replaced Telavi with the former opposition leader Enele Sopoaga as prime minister and ordered that parliament sit until 2 August to allow for the vote of non-confidence regarding Telavi"s government to take place.
On the same day, Telavi declared he had written to Elizabeth II, the Queen of Tuvalu, advising her to replace Italeli as governor general and that Italeli "had been fired". The Queen gave no indication of her reaction to Telavi"s letter, leaving Italeli"s position secure.
