Now a leading member of the Conservative Alliance, a nationalistic party which included many supporters and associates of George Speight, the chief instigator of the 2000 coup, Lalabalavu won the Cakaudrove East Fijian Communal Constituency, one of 23 reserved for ethnic Fijians in the House of Representatives.

In the coalition government that was subsequently formed, Lalabalavu was appointed Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources.

The appointment was later harshly criticized by Senator Adi Koila Nailatikau, daughter of former President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who had been deposed in the coup.

She accused him of having ordered the burning of the Matailakeba Cane Farm in Seaqaqa (owned by Ratu Mara) in the midst of an army mutiny at Sukanaivalu Barracks in Labasa on July 29, 2000.

He said that as it was the chiefs who ceded the islands to the United Kingdom in 1874, paramount authority should have been returned to them when independence was granted in 1970.

[5] The Fiji Village news service reported on 23 February 2006 that some chiefs wished to nominate Lalabalavu for the office of President or Vice-President in the 2006 presidential election.

In May 2015, Lalabalavu was referred to the privileges committee for making derogatory comments about Speaker of Parliament Dr Jiko Luveni at a constituency meeting.

On July 15, 2015, Ratu Naiqama launched a constitutional challenge, heard by Chief Justice Anthony Gates, against Speaker Jiko Luveni and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum for his suspension.