Losena Tubanavau Salabula is a Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

an politician, who currently serves in the Cabinet

Cabinet (Fiji)

Fiji has the Westminster system - executive authority is vested nominally in a President, but exercised in practice by a Cabinet of Ministers, presided over by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is formally appointed, but not chosen, by the President: the President must appoint as Prime...

 as Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office. In this role, she undertakes assignments on behalf of the Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase

Laisenia Qarase

Laisenia Qarase is a Fijian political figure. He served as the sixth Prime Minister of Fiji from 2000 to 2006. After the military quashed the coup that led to the removal of Mahendra Chaudhry, Qarase joined the Interim Military Government as a financial adviser on 9 June 2000, until his appointment...

. Prior to assuming this post in May 2006, she was Assistant Minister for Women, Assistant Minister for Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation, and Assistant Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.

In the election

Fiji election of 2001

The Constitution of Fiji was restored by a High Court decision on 15 November 2000, following the failure of the political upheaval in which the government had been deposed and the constitution suspended in May that year. On 1 March 2001, the Appeal Court upheld the decision. An election to...

 held to restore democracy in September 2001, she won the Laucala

Laucala (Open Constituency, Fiji)

Laucala Open is an electoral division of Fiji, one of 25 open constituencies elected by universal suffrage . Like the other open electorates, it came into being in 1999 and was used for the parliamentary elections of 1999, 2001, and 2006...

 Open Constituency

Open constituencies (Fiji)

Open constituencies represent one of several electoral models employed in the past and present in the Fijian electoral system. They derive their name from the fact that they are "open": unlike the communal constituencies, the 25 members of the House of Representatives who represent open...

 for the United Fiji Party (SDL). Despite polling fewer votes than the Fiji Labour Party

Fiji Labour Party

The Fiji Labour Party is a political party in Fiji, which holds observer status with the Socialist International. Most of its support at present comes from the Indo-Fijian community, although it is officially multiracial and its first leader was an indigenous Fijian, Dr. Timoci Bavadra. It is...

 (FLP) incumbent, Dewan Chand

Dewan Chand

Dewan Chand is a Fiji Indian educationist and politician who won the Laucala Indian Communal Constituency for the Labour Party in 2006 general election, getting 90% of the votes cast....

, enough votes cast for low-polling candidates were transferred to her under Fiji's voting system (which combines elements of electoral fusion

Electoral fusion

Electoral fusion is an arrangement where two or more political parties on a ballot list the same candidate, pooling the votes for that candidate...

 and instant run-off voting) to give her the seat. She was subsequently appointed to the Cabinet.

At the general election

Fiji election of 2006

The Constitution of Fiji requires general elections for the House of Representatives to be held at least once every five years. The latest election was held on 6-13 May 2006. Acting President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi issued a proclamation on 2 March, effective from 27 March, dissolving Parliament...

held on 6–13 May 2006, Salabula retained her seat by a mere 17 votes out of more than 15,000 votes cast.