Pio Iowane Wong 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 of indigenous

Fijian people

Fijian people are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. The Fijian people are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago, though the exact origins of the Fijian people are unknown...

 and Chinese

Chinese in Fiji

The Chinese diaspora in Fiji consists a small, but influential, community in the multiracial society that makes up modern day Fiji. In the early 2000s their numbers were estimated at around 6,000, or a little over half of one percent of Fiji's population. The most recent estimation puts the...

 descent. He served 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...

 from 2004 to 2006 as Minister for Local Government, Housing, Squatter Settlement, and the Environment.

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 in September 2001, Wong, a former Army

Military of Fiji

The Republic of Fiji Military Forces are the military of the Pacific island nation of Fiji. With a total manpower of 3,500 active soldiers and 6,000 reservists, it is one of the smallest militaries in the world. However, most of its surrounding island nations have no militaries at all...

 officer with the rank of Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

, won the Serua Navosa

Serua Navosa (Open Constituency, Fiji)

Serua Navosa 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 Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua

Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua

The Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua is a political party in Fiji...

 (SDL), defeating Adi Kuini Speed

Kuini Speed

Adi Kuini Teimumu Vuikaba Speed was a Fijian chief and politician, who served as Deputy Prime Minister in 1999 and 2000....

, who had held the seat for many years. (Wong had previously contested the seat, unsuccessfully, as an independent candidate in the parliamentary election

Fiji election of 1999

General elections were held in Fiji between 8 and 15 May 1999. They were the first election held under the revised Constitution of 1997, which instituted a new electoral system and resulted in Mahendra Chaudhry taking office as Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister.-Electoral system:Previously,...

 of 1999). He was appointed Minister for Local Government, Housing, Squatter Settlement, and Environment in 2004.

The SDL had decided not to nominate Wong for another Parliamentary term. He stood as independent candidate in the 2006 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...

and was defeated.