2014 Nanumaga by-election
A by-election was held in the Nanumaga constituency in Tuvalu on 14 January 2014. It followed the seat being declared vacant because of the ill-health of the incumbent Opposition MP Dr. Falesa Pitoi, on health grounds.
Context
Dr. Pitoi, a dentist, had served as one of the two MPs for Nanumaga since 2006, and had been appointed Minister for Education, Youth and Sport in Prime Minister Willy Telavi's government on 24 December 2010. In January 2013, he was taken seriously ill while on an official visit to Cuba. He was hospitalised, and later travelled to New Zealand for further treatment. His prolonged absence from Parliament contributed to the Telavi government losing its parliamentary majority; Pitoi and the rest of Cabinet were voted out of office by Parliament on 2 August. Though still absent from the country, Pitoi was now officially an Opposition MP to the new government led by Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga.In December 2013, Governor-General Sir Iakoba Italeli declared Pitoi's seat vacant in accordance with Section 99 of the Tuvalu Constitution following a medical report on his health; he had now been away from the country for eleven months. Consequently, a by-election was announced to replace him. Monise Laafai retained the other Nanumaga seat, for which he had been elected in 2010.
The Sopoaga government hoped to win Pitoi's vacant seat from the Opposition, which would grant the government a two thirds majority in Parliament, and enable it in particular to elect a new Speaker, replacing Sir Kamuta Latasi, whom Sopoaga accused of being partisan.