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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.
The Great Council of Chiefs(Bose Levu Vakaturaga in Fijian) was a constitutional body in Fiji from 1876 to March 2012. In April 2007, the council was suspended, due to an unworkable relationship with Frank Bainimarama, leader of an "interim government" that came to power through military coup in December 2006. It was formally disestablished by decree in March 2012.
Vanua Levu, formerly known as Sandalwood Island, is the second largest island of Fiji. Located 64 kilometres to the north of the larger Viti Levu, the island has an area of 5,587.1 square kilometres (2,157.2 sq mi) and a population of 135,961 as of 2007.
Labasa is a town in Fiji with a population of 27,949 at the most recent census held in 2007.
Ratu Naiqama Tawake Lalabalavu is a Fijian Paramount Chief and the current speaker of the parliament. He had served as the leader of the opposition.
Sir Vijay Raghubar Singh, KBE was an Indo-Fijian lawyer and politician who held Cabinet office in the 1960s and 1970s. Vijay Singh served in Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara's government in a variety of positions, including Attorney-General, and was president of the Indian Alliance, a division of the ruling Alliance Party. He quit the party in 1979 following disagreement with Alliance leadership and later joined the opposition National Federation Party. Vijay Singh was involved in the restructure of the Fiji sugar industry and was a leading member of the Jaycees movement in Fiji.
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.
Hafizud Dean Khan (1950–2022) was a Fijian politician and businessman who was the president of the Fiji Muslim League. He was also a former Senator and he served as the vice-president of the Senate of Fiji.
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.
Ratu Josaia Naulumatua Rayawa is a Fijian Chief, religious minister, and former political leader. He served in the Senate from 2001 to 2006 as one of nine nominees of the Fijian Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase. He had previously been President of the now-defunct Christian Democratic Alliance (VLV), which won three seats in the 1999 election.
Jagannath Sami has been a soccer player representing a premier district side in the Fiji Football Association competitions, a leader of the sugar mill workers, a leader of a farmers' union, a politician and chief executive officer of the Sugar Cane Growers Council of Fiji but he is best known for the controversy surrounding his dismissal as the CEO of the SCGC by the military regime of Commodore Josaia Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama following the military coup of 2006.
Charan Jeath Singh is an Indo-Fijian businessman, politician, and Cabinet Minister. From 1992 to 2005 he was Mayor of Labasa. He is the founder of the CJS Group of companies.
Parmod Chand is a Fijian politician and former member of the Parliament of Fiji. He is a member of the National Federation Party (NFP).
Noor Dean is a Fiji Indian lawyer and politician who served in the Suva City Council and was elected to the House of Representatives of Fiji in 1987.
Unlike the majority of Fiji's Indian population, who are descendants of Indian indentured labourers brought to Fiji between 1879 and 1916, most of the Sikhs came to Fiji as free immigrants. Most Sikhs established themselves as farmers. Sikhs also came to Fiji as policemen, teachers and preachers. In recent years large numbers of Sikhs have emigrated from Fiji, especially to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Sikhs in Fiji are generally referred to as Punjabis.
Indo-Fijians are Fijian citizens of South Asian descent, and include people who trace their ancestry to various regions of the South Asian subcontinent. Although Indo-Fijians constituted a majority of Fiji's population from 1956 through the late 1980s, discrimination and the resulting brain drain resulted in them numbering 313,798 (37.6%) out of a total of 827,900 people living in Fiji as of 2007.
Fiji National University is a public university in Fiji that was formally constituted on 15 February 2010 by the Fiji National University Act 2009.
Fiji's fourth constitution was signed into law by President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau on 6 September 2013, coming into effect immediately. It is the first to eliminate race-based electoral rolls, race-based seat quotas, district-based representation, the unelected upper chamber, and the role of the hereditary Council of Chiefs. It vests sole legislative authority in a single-chamber, 50-seat, at-large Parliament, to be first convened following general elections in 2014. It is also the first ever to grant the right to multiple citizenship, and lowers the voting age to 18.
Harold Brockett Gibson was a New Zealand-born Fijian solicitor and politician. He served as a member of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives in three spells between 1937 and 1972. He also represented Fiji in the lawn bowls competition at the 1950 British Empire Games.
References
- Fiji Times, 10 January 2006.