Portal:Tuvalu/Selected biography/6

Pelenike Isaia was a Tuvaluan politician. She worked initially for the Tuvalu Cooperative Society, as its branch manager on Nui atoll. Her career in national politics began when she won the August 2011 by-election for the constituency of Nui, and thus entered Parliament. The by-election had been caused by the death of her husband, the incumbent MP and Minister for Works Isaia Italeli. She was only the second woman ever to have sat in Tuvalu's Parliament, following Naama Maheu Latasi, who was an MP for Nanumea from 1989 to 1997. Isaia was not returned to Parliament at the Tuvaluan general election, 2015.