Ro

Ro (title)

Ro is a title used by Fijian chiefs in the Province of Rewa, as well as parts of Naitasiri, Namosi, and Serua. Both males and females are so styled; in other areas of Fiji, male chiefs are titled Ratu and female chiefs, Adi....

 Suliano Matanitobua 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 chief

Ratu

Ratu is a title used by Fijians of chiefly rank. An equivalent title, Adi is used by females of chiefly rank.-Etymology:Ra is a prefix in many titles and Tu is simply "chief"...

 and politician, who currently serves as Minister of State for Fijian Affairs. He was first appointed to the interim 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...

 formed by 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...

 in the wake of the Fiji coup of 2000

Fiji coup of 2000

The Fiji coup of 2000 was a complicated affair involving a civilian putsch by hardline Fijian nationalists against the elected government of a non-native Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, on 19 May 2000, the attempt by President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara to assert executive authority on 27 May, and...

.

He first participated in the Great Council of Chiefs in 1989, at the age of 22. In 2000, he was listed as assistant minister for Fijian Affairs.

In the 2001 parliamentary 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...

, Matanitobua won the Namosi

Namosi (Fijian Communal Constituency, Fiji)

Namosi Fijian Provincial Communal is an electoral division of Fiji, one of 23 communal constituencies reserved for indigenous Fijians....

 Fijian

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...

 Communal Constituency

Communal constituencies (Fiji)

Communal constituencies have been the most durable feature of the Fijian electoral system. In communal constituencies, electors enrolled as ethnic Fijians, Indo-Fijians, Rotuman Islanders, or General Electors vote for a candidate of their own respective ethnic groups, in constituencies that have...

 for the United Fiji Party (SDL), taking 85.5 percent of the vote. In 2006 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...

, he held the seat by an even larger majority.

Matanitobua holds the chiefly title of Tui Namosi

Tui Namosi

The "Tui Namosi" is a chiefly Title of the Fiji Islands and is the title held by the Paramount Chief of the Province of Namosi on the Main Island of Viti Levu.Robatiratu was the vunivalu at the yavutu of Nabukebuke at Wailase in the Wainimala highlands...

, to which he was installed in 1999, replacing his father, Ratu Saloon Matanitobua.