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.
George Speight, also known by his pseudonym Ilikimi Naitini, is a Fijian businessman and politician who was the leader of the 2000 Fijian coup d'état, in which he and rebel soldiers from Fiji's Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit seized the Fijian Parliament and held Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and 35 other MP's hostage from 19 May 2000 to 13 July 2000. After being convicted of treason for leading the coup, he is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment.
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.
Adi Koila Mara Nailatikau is a Fijian lawyer, who has served as a diplomat and politician. She was also First Lady of Fiji from 2009 until 2015, as the wife of Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, the President of Fiji.
The president of Fiji is the head of state of the Republic of Fiji. The president is appointed by the Parliament for a three-year term under the terms of the 2013 Constitution. Although not entirely a figurehead, the role of president in the government is largely ceremonial, but there are important reserve powers that may be exercised in the event of a crisis. In addition, the president is the commander-in-chief of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.
Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka is a Fijian politician who has served as Prime Minister of Fiji since 24 December 2022. He was the instigator of two military coups in 1987. He was democratically elected as Prime Minister of Fiji, serving from 1992 to 1999, and again in 2022, leading a three-party coalition. He also served as Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs from 1999 to 2001, and later as Chairman of the Cakaudrove Provincial Council from 2001 to 2008.
Josaia Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama is a Fijian politician and former naval officer who served as the prime minister of Fiji from 2007 until 2022. A member of the FijiFirst party, which he founded in 2014, he began his career as an officer in the Fijian navy and commander of the Fijian military. He served as the opposition leader from 24 December 2022 despite being suspended from Parliament until 8 March 2023, when he resigned and was replaced by Inia Seruiratu.
Ratu Jope Naucabalavu Seniloli was a Fijian chief who held the title of Turaga Taukei Naua and who served as Fiji's vice-president from 25 March 2001 to 29 November 2004, when he was forced to resign following his conviction for treason on 6 August 2004, and the rejection of his appeal early in November.
Fiji Week was a week of prayer meetings and multicultural programmes that took place the week of 4–11 October 2004. Organized at a cost of US$410,000 by a multiracial national committee chaired by the Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, Fiji Week was intended to foster reconciliation among Fiji's diverse ethnic communities, especially native Fijians and Indo-Fijians, whose mutual rivalry for political power has dominated Fijian politics for the last generation, and whose relationship has been especially strained since the overthrow of the Indo-Fijian-led government of Mahendra Chaudhry by ethnic Fijian nationalists in the Fiji coup of 2000. Organizers of Fiji Week hoped that it would help to bring about a sense of closure to those events, but the controversy that it generated made this appear difficult to achieve.
The Fiji coup d'état of 2000 was a civilian coup d'état by hardline i-Taukei nationalists against the elected government of an Indo-Fijian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry on 19 May 2000. This was followed by an attempt on 27 May by President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara to assert executive authority, and then by a military coup on 29 May by Republic of Fiji Military Forces Commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama. The coups resulted in the removal of the elected government and its replacement by an interim regime headed by Josefa Iloilo. In March 2001 the Court of Appeal of Fiji ruled that the coups and interim regime were illegal. An elected government was finally restored by the 2001 Fijian general election.
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 the global COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the economy and the daily lives of the people.
Poseci Waqalevu Bune is a former Fijian civil servant, diplomat, politician and Cabinet Minister. He has served as chair of the Public Service Commissioner, secretary to the Prime Minister, and as Fiji's permanent representative to the United Nations, as well as a Cabinet Minister in the governments of Mahendra Chaudhry and Laisenia Qarase, and in the military regime of Frank Bainimarama.
The Reconciliation and Unity Commission was a proposed government body to be set up if the Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill, which was introduced into the Fijian Parliament on 4 May 2005 was passed. The legislation proposed to empower the commission to grant amnesty to perpetrators of the Fiji coup of 2000, and compensation to victims of it from 19 May 2000 through 15 March 2001. The Fijian President would retain a veto over the granting of amnesty.
Andrew Charles Hughes was an Australian police officer of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) who served as the Chief Police Officer (CPO) for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Head of the United Nations Police Division. The CPO position is similar to the role of Australian Commissioners of Police, that is, the chief executive of the ACT Policing component of the AFP. ACT Policing forms one of the larger operating components of Australia's national policing agency, the Australian Federal Police. He was also Commissioner of Police in Fiji from 2003 to 2006. Hughes died of bowel cancer in 2018, aged 62.
The tension between Fiji's government and military forces, which had been simmering for more than two years, appeared to escalate in late December 2005. Tension between the government and the military had been simmering throughout the year, with Commodore Bainimarama and other military officers making strongly worded public statements opposing certain government policies, including the early release from prison of persons implicated in the Fiji coup of 2000, and the government's promotion of controversial legislation to establish a Commission with the power to grant amnesty to perpetrators of the coup.
The crisis that saw a virtual breakdown in relations between Fiji's government and military forces in late 2005 and early 2006, generated fears of civil unrest and even a military coup. The dismissing of Lieutenant Colonel Jone Baledrokadroka, the Acting Land Force Commander, for alleged insubordination on 12 January 2006 was coupled with unusual deployments of troops and naval vessels. Both before and after it was resolved on 16 January with a truce brokered by Acting President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, the crisis generated a great deal of comment.
The Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit or CRWU was the common name for the First Meridian Squadron, the unit's formal name, which had been disbanded in 2000. It was the only special forces group of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, and was the brainchild of former Military Commander and former Prime Minister, Major-General Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka.
Joseph Browne is a Fijian civil servant, who was Official Secretary to the late President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, prior to Mara's possibly forced resignation during the insurrection which deposed the constitutional government in 2000. He had first been employed by Mara in 1985 when the latter was still Prime Minister, and had remained with him through the various offices he held, including the Vice-Presidency and Presidency. He is now the head of the Immigration Department.
Republic of Fiji Islands v Prasad is a 2001 landmark decision of the Court of Appeal of Fiji which upheld the 1997 Constitution of Fiji in the aftermath of the 2000 Fijian coup d'état. The court agreed with the previous High Court of Fiji ruling that the constitution had not been overturned and that Parliament had not been dissolved, but only prorogued. It also found that the office of President of Fiji had only become vacant in December 2000 after Kamisese Mara resigned following the High Court ruling.
