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.
Laisenia Qarase was a Fijian politician. 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 as Prime Minister on 4 July. He won two parliamentary elections, but a military coup removed him from power on 5 December 2006. He was later imprisoned on corruption charges brought by the military-backed regime.
The Fiji Labour Party (FLP), 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 and politician, who founded the now-defunct New Labour Unity Party. Most members of this party later merged with several other centrist parties to form the Fiji Democratic Party. A former Professor of Education at the University of the South Pacific (USP), he later served as a senior research fellow at the Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, from 2001 to the end of 2005. In the general election scheduled for 6–13 May 2006, Baba attempted a political comeback, this time on the ticket of the ruling Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL), a political switch that generated a considerable degree of public discussion. Although his bid was unsuccessful, he was subsequently appointed to the Senate as one of nine nominees of the Fijian government.
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.
Nanise Nagusuca is a former Fijian politician, who was elected to the House of Representatives in a special election on December 11, 2004. The byelection for the North East Urban Fijian Communal constituency was held to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Filimone Banuve, the previous member. Like Banuve, Nagusuca was a member of the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL), the party of the Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase.
The Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT), occasionally known in English as Fijian Political Party, was a party which dominated politics in the 1990s and was the mainstay of coalition governments from 1992 to 1999.
Since attaining independence from the United Kingdom on 10 October 1970, Fijian history has been marked by exponential economic growth up to 1987, followed by relative stagnation, caused to a large extent by political instability following two military coups in 1987 and a civilian putsch in 2000. This was followed by another military coup in 2006. Rivalry between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians, rather than ideological differences, have been the most visible cleavage of Fijian politics. Later in 2020, Fiji was hit by a coronavirus pandemic originated from Wuhan, China affecting the economy and the daily lives of the people.
Josefa Bole Vosanibola is a Fijian politician who served as Minister for Home Affairs from 16 December 2004, when he was appointed by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to succeed Joketani Cokanasiga, to 5 December 2006, when his government was deposed in a military coup.
Poseci Waqalevu Bune is a former Fijian politician, who has served as Deputy Leader of the Fiji Labour Party (FLP). From June to December 2006, he served as Minister for the Environment, one of nine FLP ministers, in the multiparty Cabinet of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. His ministerial career was terminated by the coup d'état that deposed the government on 5 December 2006, but on January 8, 2007, he was appointed as Minister for Public Service and Public Service Reform in the interim Cabinet of Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
Qoriniasi Babitu Bale was a lawyer and politician who served twice as Fiji's Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, most recently from 2001 to 2006, when he was deposed in the military coup of 5 December. Like many of Fiji's most influential leaders, Bale was a native of Levukana in Vanua Balavu in the Lau Islands.
Simione Kaitani is a former Fijian politician. He was previously a Cabinet Minister from 2001 to 2006, serving initially as Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, and later as Information Minister. He resigned these portfolios in favour of Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu on 20 September 2005, but remained in the Cabinet as a Minister without portfolio. Following the general election of 2006, he was appointed Leader of the House, and as such was responsible for the conduct of government business in the House of Representatives. He remained in this position until the military coup that overthrew the government on 5 December 2006.
Adi Asenaca Coboiverata Caucau, generally known simply as Adi Asenaca Caucau, is a Fijian politician. She served as Minister For Women and Minister for Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation from 2001 to 2006, when she became Minister of State for Housing. She held this post, and continued to represent the Tailevu South Lomaiviti Open Constituency in the House of Representatives until 5 December 2006, when the Military of Fiji staged a coup d'état and removed her government from office. She had first won the seat for the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Party (SDL) in the parliamentary election of September 2001.
General elections were held in Fiji between 6 and 13 May 2006.
Local elections were held in Fiji on 22 October 2005 to elect the councils of eleven municipalities. In Suva, the elections for the Suva City Council were postponed until 12 November due to the death of two candidates; the death of a candidate in Lautoka also resulted in the postponement of the poll in one of the four wards.
Joketani Cokanasiga was a Fijian politician, who served as Minister for Public Works and Energy in the interim Cabinet formed by Laisenia Qarase in the wake of the Fiji coup of 2000. He held office till an elected government took power in September 2001.
The Fijian coup d'état of December 2006 was a coup d'état carried out by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, against the government of President Josefa Iloilo. Iloilo was removed as president, but he was later reinstated by Bainimarama on 4 January 2007. The coup occurred as a continuation of the pressure which had been building since the military unrest of the 2000 Fijian coup d'état and 2005–06 Fijian political crisis.
Rajesh Singh is a Fijian politician of Indian descent, who briefly held Cabinet office in mid-2006.
