Patiale was found by the country's High Court of Tuvalu to have "lodged his nomination papers after the legal deadline", and thus not to have stood lawfully as a candidate in the general election.

There are no political parties in Tuvalu, but Patiale and Tauia were both members of prime minister Saufatu Sopoanga's extremely narrow parliamentary majority.

[2] Nanumea is a two-seat constituency, and in the 2002 general election it had returned Sio Patiale and Maatia Toafa with 24.8% and 23% of the vote respectively, ahead of five other candidates.

[1] This was not immediately enough to save the Sopoanga government, however: Taavau Teii, the winner of the Niutao by-election, was initially uncommitted, then sided with the opposition, providing it with a parliamentary majority.

[5] The Sopoanga government was eventually brought down by an eight-to-six motion of no confidence in August 2004,[6] and Patiale announced his own resignation due to ill-health in April 2005, precipitating yet another by-election in his constituency.