The politics of Fiji take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic. Fiji has a multiparty system with the Prime Minister of Fiji as head of government. The executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Parliament of Fiji. The judiciary is mostly independent of the executive and the legislature.
Mahendra Pal Chaudhry is a Fijian politician and the leader of the Fiji Labour Party. Following a historic election in which he defeated the long-time former leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, the former trade union leader became Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister on 19 May 1999, but exactly one year later, on 19 May 2000 he and most of his Cabinet were taken hostage by coup leader George Speight, in the Fiji coup of 2000. Unable to exercise his duties, he and his ministers were sacked by President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara on 27 May; Mara intended to assume emergency powers himself but was himself deposed by the military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
The Fiji Labour Party, also known as Fiji Labour, is a political party in Fiji. Most of its support is from the Indo-Fijian community, although it is officially multiracial and its first leader was an indigenous Fijian, Dr. Timoci Bavadra. The party has been elected to power twice, with Timoci Bavadra and Mahendra Chaudhry becoming prime minister in 1987 and 1999 respectively. On both occasions, the resulting government was rapidly overthrown by a coup.
The United Fiji Party was a political party in Fiji. It was founded in 2001 by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase as a power base; it absorbed most of the Christian Democratic Alliance and other conservative groups, and its endorsement by the Great Council of Chiefs (Bose Levu Vakaturaga) caused it to be widely seen as the successor to the Alliance Party, the former ruling party that had dominated Fijian politics from the 1960s to the 1980s. It drew its support mainly from indigenous Fijiians.
Tupeni Lebaivalu Baba is a Fijian academic, politician, and former Cabinet Minister. A founding member of the Fiji Labour Party, he served as a Cabinet Minister in the government of Timoci Bavadra until removed from office by the 1987 Fijian coups d'état, and then one of the two Deputy Prime Ministers in the government of Mahendra Chaudhry until removed from office by the 2000 Fijian coup d'état. After splitting with Choudhry in the wake of the coup, he founded the New Labour Unity Party to contest the 2001 election, but failed to win a seat in Parliament. He unsuccessfully attempting to re-enter politics at the 2006 election under the banner of the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua, and again at the 2014 election as part of the Social Democratic Liberal Party.
AdiKuini Teimumu Vuikaba Speed was a Fijian chief and politician, who served as Deputy Prime Minister from May 1999 to May 2000.
RatuTevita Momoedonu was a Fijian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Fiji twice – each time extremely briefly. Both appointments were to get around constitutional technicalities; his first term of office – on 27 May 2000 lasted only a few minutes. His second term – from 14 to 16 March 2001 was for two days. He subsequently served his country as Ambassador of Fiji to Japan. Using his chiefly title of "Taukei Sawaieke", he later led pushed for the Yasana of Ba to secede from the Burebasaga and Kubuna Confederacies to form their own fourth confederacy under the Tui Vuda, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who died in 2011.
The Conservative Alliance was a right-wing political party in Fiji, and a member of the ruling coalition government. It was commonly known as the CAMV, a combination of the initials of its English and Fijian names. At its annual general meeting on 17 February 2006, the party voted to dissolve itself and merge with its coalition partner, the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL). The President of the party at the time of its dissolution was Ratu Tanoa Cakobau, a Bauan chief, while Ratu Josefa Dimuri served as General Secretary. For legal reasons, Parliamentary members of the disbanded party maintained a separate caucus in the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, until the end of the parliamentary term, on 27 March 2006.
George Shiu Raj is an Indo-Fijian former politician, who served as Minister for Multi-Ethnic Affairs from 2001 to 30 September 2004, when he resigned amid accusations of misuse of funds. At the time, he was the only Indo-Fijian minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. On 8 September 2005, he was acquitted of charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and of obtaining money under false pretenses, and Prime Minister Qarase announced his decision to reappoint Raj to the Cabinet. He was duly sworn in by Vice-President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi on 13 September.
The Fijian Association Party (FAP) is a former political party in Fiji. It played a significant role in Fijian politics throughout the 1990s but lost all of its seats in the House of Representatives in the parliamentary election of 2001.
The Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT), occasionally known in English as Fijian Political Party, was a party which dominated the politics of Fiji in the 1990s and was the mainstay of coalition governments from 1992 to 1999.
The Fiji Democratic Party was a political party in Fiji. It was active between June 2002 and April 2005.
RoTeimumu Vuikaba Kepa is a Fijian chief, former Member of the Parliament of Fiji, and former leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party. She was the first Fijian woman to serve as Leader of the Opposition. She previously held the position of Deputy Prime Minister in the Qarase-led Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) government from 2001 to 2006. As the paramount chief of the Burebasaga Confederacy, she holds the title Roko Tui Dreketi.
The Christian Democratic Alliance, better known locally by its Fijian name, Veitokani ni Lewenivanua Vakarisito (VLV), was a Fijian political party that operated in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
RatuCokanauto Tu'uakitau was a Fijian chief and politician. He was the scion of a distinguished family, as a son of Ratu Sir Edward Cakobau, and brother of Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, who had served as President of Fiji from 2009 to 2015.
General elections were held in Fiji between 6 and 13 May 2006.
Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi, is a Fijian politician of Indian descent. He was one of the youngest members to be elected into Parliament in 1992. He has represented the Nadroga Indian Communal Constituency, which he won for the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) in the parliamentary elections of 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, and 2006. After the 1999 election he was appointed Assistant Minister in Prime Minister's Office. He was appointed Minister for Youth and Sports and Employment Opportunities in the interim administration that followed the military coup that took place on 5 December 2006. He was born to a family of Rajasthani descent.
John Ali is a Fiji Indian politician who won the Nasinu Rewa Open Constituency, one of the 25 open seats, for the Fiji Labour Party during the 1999 elections for the House of Representatives.
Ponipate Tawase Lesavua was a Fijian politician, who led the now-defunct Party of National Unity, which drew most of its support from Ba Province in the West of the country. The former Police officer, who spent 20 years in the Criminal Investigation Department, was an outspoken politician, who championed what he saw as the interests of western Fiji. He has endorsed calls for a return to the former system of customary justice, in force during the colonial era, under which convicted offenders would be returned to their villages not only for punishment but also for counselling and correction, according to the Fiji Times.
Josaia Waqabaca is a Fijian public figure and former political organizer, who turned police informant about the Fiji coup of 2000. Waqabaca was convicted and imprisoned in 2001 for plotting to kidnap the Military Commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, in 2000.
