Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, was a Fijian politician, who served as Chief Minister from 1967 to 1970, when Fiji gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and, apart from one brief interruption in 1987, the first Prime Minister from 1970 to 1992. He subsequently served as President from 1993 to 2000.
Ratu Tevita 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.
Ratu is an Austronesian title used by male Fijians of chiefly rank. An equivalent title, adi, is used by females of chiefly rank. In the Malay language, the title ratu is also the traditional honorific title to refer to the ruling king or queen in Javanese culture. Thus in Java, a royal palace is called "keraton", constructed from the circumfix ke- -an and Ratu, to describe the residence of the ratu.
Ratu Ovini Bokini Ratu was a Fijian chief and political leader. Bokini, who held the chiefly title of Tui Tavua, succeeded Ratu Epeli Ganilau as Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs on 21 July 2004, and was re-elected to this post for a full three-year term on 27 July 2005.
The House of Chiefs in Fiji consists of the Fijian nobility, composed of about seventy chiefs of various ranks, majority of which are related. It is not a formal political body and is not the same as the former Great Council of Chiefs, which was a political body with a prescribed constitutional role, although the membership of the two bodies did overlap to a great extent.
Ratu Naiqama Tawake Lalabalavu MBE is a Fijian Paramount Chief and the current speaker of the parliament. He had served as the leader of the opposition.
Kubuna is one of the three confederacies that make up Fiji's House of Chiefs, to which all of Fiji's chiefs belong.
Burebasaga is the largest of the three confederacies that make up Fiji's House of Chiefs, to which some of the Fijian chiefs belong.
Ratu Inoke Takiveikata served two non-consecutive terms in the 1990s as one of two vice-presidents of Fiji.
The Tui Cakau is the Paramount Chief of Cakaudrove Province in Fiji.
Viseisei is a village at Vuda Point on the west coast of Viti Levu island, in Ba Province of Fiji.
Ratu Sairusi Nagagavoka (1920–2014) was a Fijian chief and political leader from Ba Province. He held the traditional title of Momo na Tui Ba , commonly abbreviated to Tui Ba Bulu, and as such was one of two paramount chiefs in the Ba district of Ba Province. He was the President of the Party of National Unity (PANU), which he founded in 1998.
Elections to the offices of President and Vice-President of Fiji took place on 8 March 2006, when the Great Council of Chiefs met as an electoral college at the Tradewinds Convention Centre in Lami. The Great Council re-elected President Ratu Josefa Iloilo and Vice-President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi to another five-year term.
A Presidential election took place in Fiji on 18 July 2000, to replace Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who had resigned, possibly under pressure from the Military, during the Fiji coup of 2000. The Great Council of Chiefs, an assembly of mostly hereditary chiefs which is constitutionally empowered to elect the President, chose the Tui Vuda, Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, who had been Vice-President under Mara, to succeed him. Iloilo had already exercised Presidential duties since 13 July, when the Military had asked him to take over the office.
Ba is a province of Fiji, occupying the north-western sector of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. It is one of fourteen provinces in the nation of Fiji, and one of eight based in Viti Levu. It is Fiji's most populous province, with a population of 247,708 – more than a quarter of the nation's total – at the 2017 census. It covers a land area of 2,634 km2 (1,017 sq mi), the second largest of any province.
Tui Vuda is the traditional title of the paramount chief of the Vuda district in Ba Province on Fiji's northwest coast. The most recent person to hold the title is Ratu Kitione Eparama Tavaiqia.
Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, was a Fijian politician who served as the 3rd President of Fiji from 2000 until 2009, excluding a brief period from 5 December 2006 to 4 January 2007. He held the traditional title of Tui Vuda, the paramount chief of the Vuda district in Ba Province on Fiji's northwest coast. Like many Fijian people, he rarely used his surname and was known simply as Josefa Iloilo. He announced on 28 July 2009 that he would be leaving office on 30 July. At the age of 88, he was the world's oldest head of state.
Ratu Jione Atonio Rabici "Tom" Doviverata was a Bau chief and medical doctor and administrator in colonial Fiji.
In Fiji, Turaga na Roko Tui Bau is a vassal chief of the Vunivalu of Bau. From his seat at the residence of Naicobocobo, the Roko Tui Bau rules the Vusaratu chiefs and has relationships with the Roko Tui Dreketi, Ratu Mai Verata, Roko Tui Namata, Roko Tui Veikau, Tui Vuya and other members of Fiji's House of Chiefs.
