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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.
The House of Representatives was the lower chamber of Fiji's Parliament from 1970 to 2006. It was the more powerful of the two chambers;it alone had the power to initiate legislation. The House of Representatives also had much greater jurisdiction over financial bills;the Senate could not amend them,although it might veto them. Except in the case of amendments to the Constitution,over which a veto of the Senate was absolute,the House of Representatives might override a Senatorial veto by passing the same bill a second time,in the parliamentary session immediately following the one in which it was rejected by the Senate,after a minimum period of six months.
Chapter 6:The Parliament.Chapter 6 of the Fiji Constitution is titled The Parliament. The five Parts,further subdivided into forty sections making up this chapter,set out the composition,functions,and powers of Fiji's bicameral legislature.
Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka is a Fijian politician,former soldier and former sportsman 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.
The National Federation Party is a Fijian political party founded by A. D. Patel in November 1968,as a merger of the Federation Party and the National Democratic Party. Though it claims to represent all Fiji Islanders,it is supported,in practice,almost exclusively by Indo-Fijians whose ancestors had come to Fiji between 1879 and 1916,mostly as indentured labourers. However,in the 2018 general election,the party recorded a considerable change in its support base due to the inclusion of more indigenous Fijian candidates.
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.
The National Alliance Party of Fiji (NAPF) was a Fijian political party. It was formally registered on 18 January 2005 by Ratu Epeli Ganilau,as the claimed successor to the defunct Alliance Party,which ruled Fiji from 1967 to 1987 under the leadership of the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara,Ganilau's father-in-law. Others involved with the party included university lecturer Meli Waqa as party secretary,and Manu Korovulavula as treasurer. The Deputy Leader was Hirdesh Sharma. The party was launched publicly at a mass rally in Suva on 8 April 2005.
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 United Peoples Party was a minor political party in Fiji. It represented mainly General Electors and multiracial people,and claimed to follow moderate,centrist policies. From 2001 it was led by Mick Beddoes,the sole member elected from the party to the 71-member House of Representatives in the general election.
Mick Malcolm Millis Beddoes,widely known as Mick Beddoes,is a Fijian politician and businessman from Nadi,who led the United Peoples Party from 2000 to 2013,and was the Leader of the Opposition at the time of the military coup of 5 December 2006. He was also the Chief Executive of the World Netball Company,and was Chairman of the organising committee for the 2007 World Netball Championships,but announced his resignation on 24 January 2006,citing a possible conflict of interest,as his company would be working as a ground operator during the championships.
The Grand Coalition for Fiji,formerly known as the Grand Coalition Initiative Group,was a coalition of five predominantly indigenous Fijian political parties in Fiji,forged for the purpose of contesting the general election scheduled for 2006 under a single umbrella and forming a coalition government subsequently. Efforts to unite the ethnic Fijian parties were in part a response to their electoral defeat in 1999,when they had been split,enabling the Indian-backed FLP to win a landslide victory. Nevertheless,Tomasi Vakatora,the chairman of the Grand Coalition,publicly stated in February 2006 that it was open to sharing preferences with the predominantly Indian parties. By the time of the election,however,the coalition was virtually defunct.
Communal constituencies were the most durable feature of the Fijian electoral system. In communal constituencies,electors enrolled as ethnic Fijians,Indo-Fijians,Rotuman Islanders,or General electors vote for a candidate of their own respective ethnic groups,in constituencies that have been reserved by ethnicity. Other methods of choosing parliamentarians came and went,but this feature was a constant until their final abolition in the 2013 Constitution.
Open constituencies represent one of several electoral models employed in the past in the Fijian electoral system. They derived their name from the fact that they were "open":unlike the communal constituencies,the 25 members of the House of Representatives who represented open constituencies were elected by universal suffrage and were open to members of any ethnic group.
General elections were held in Fiji between 6 and 13 May 2006.
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.
References
- 1 2 Fraenkel, Jon; Firth, Stewart (July 3, 2007). From Election to Coup in Fiji: The 2006 Campaign and Its Aftermath. editorips@usp.ac.fj. ISBN 9789820108080 – via Google Books.
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