[2] 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.

[21] The resulting deadlock in Parliament was broken when Environment Minister Teina Bishop resigned and joined the opposition[22] and the Cook Islands Party won the 2006 Matavera by-election.

[24] The Democratic Party won the resulting 2006 election[25] and agreed to back Marurai as Prime Minister again.

[27] In May 2007 Marurai attended the 8th Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders in Washington, D.C., and expressed disappointment with the lack of commitments by the United States.

[28] In August 2007 he hosted New Zealand Governor-General Anand Satyanand,[29] and in October he made a state visit to China.

[31][32] In late 2008 Foreign Minister Wilkie Rasmussen publicly called for both Marurai and his deputy Maoate to step down.

[34][35] In December, a million dollar legal settlement from a failed bid to buy the Toa fuel tank farm led to the sacking of Maoate and a walkout of Democrats from Cabinet.

[39] In January 2010, with both the Democrats and the Cook Islands Party opposed to his premiership,[40] Marurai announced that he would not be "calling parliament for at least several months" as no sitting was required until it was necessary to pass a budget.