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General elections were held in Fiji on 23 March and 10 April 1908. [1]
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General elections were held in Fiji on 23 March and 10 April 1908. [1]
The Legislative Council consisted of ten civil servants, six elected Europeans and two appointed Fijians. [1] The six Europeans were elected from three constituencies; Levuka (one seat), Suva (two seats) and a "Planters" constituency covering the rest of the colony (three seats). [1] Voting was restricted to European men aged 21 or over who were British subjects and earned at least £120 a year or owned property with a yearly value of £20. [2]
Voting was held in Levuka and Suva on 23 March, and in the Planters constituency on 10 April. [1]
| Constituency | Candidate | Votes | % | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Levuka | John Maynard Hedstrom | 29 | 47.5 | Elected |
| David Robbie | 25 | 41.0 | Unseated | |
| F. Volk | 7 | 11.5 | ||
| Planters | Leslie Edward Brown | 159 | 24.3 | Elected |
| Alfred Hancock Witherow | 155 | 23.7 | Elected | |
| Adam Coubrough | 152 | 23.2 | Re-elected | |
| James Burton Turner | 148 | 22.6 | Unseated | |
| J. McConnell | 40 | 6.1 | ||
| Suva | Henry Milne Scott | 84 | 29.4 | Elected |
| George Fox | 72 | 25.2 | Elected | |
| Simeon Lewis Lazarus | 70 | 24.5 | Unseated | |
| Henry Marks | 60 | 21.0 | Unseated | |
| Source: Ali | ||||
| Position | Member |
|---|---|
| Governor | Everard im Thurn |
| Agent-General of Immigration | Arthur Robert Coates |
| Attorney General | Albert Ehrhardt |
| Chief Medical Officer | George Lynch |
| Collector of Customs | John Kenneth Murray Ross |
| Colonial Secretary | Eyre Hutson |
| Commissioner, Colo North and East | Adolph Joske |
| Commissioner of Lands | Dyson Blair |
| Commissioner of Works | William Charles Simmons |
| Inspector-General of Constabulary | Islay McOwan |
| Native Commissioner | William Sutherland |
| Fijian appointees | Joni Madraiwiwi I |
| Kadavu Levu | |
| Source: Fiji Blue Book, [3] Fiji Elections [4] | |
The Alliance Party, was the ruling political party in Fiji from 1966 to 1987. Founded in the early 1960s, its leader was Kamisese Mara, the founding father of the modern Fijian nation. Widely seen as the political vehicle of the traditional Fijian chiefs, the Alliance Party also commanded considerable support among the Europeans and other ethnic minorities, who, although comprising only 3–4% of Fiji's population, were over represented in the parliament. Indo-Fijians were less supportive, but the Fijian-European block vote kept the Alliance Party in power for more than twenty years.
Since becoming independent of the United Kingdom in 1970, Fiji has had four constitutions, and the voting system has changed accordingly.
Levuka is a town on the eastern coast of the Fijian island of Ovalau, in Lomaiviti Province, in the Eastern Division of Fiji. Prior to 1877, it was the capital of Fiji. At the census in 2007, the last to date, Levuka town had a population of 1,131, about half of Ovalau's 8,360 inhabitants. It is the economic hub and the largest of 24 settlements on the island. Having been nominated decades prior, Levuka was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 2013, in recognition of the port town's exceptional testimony to the late colonial port towns in the Pacific.
General elections were held in Fiji between 26 September and 8 October 1966, the last before independence in 1970 and the first held under universal suffrage. The result was a victory for the Alliance Party, which won 23 of the 34 elected seats. Its leader Kamisese Mara became the country's first Chief Minister the following year.
James Ranchandar Rao was one of the three Indo-Fijians elected to the Legislative Council of Fiji in October 1929 when Indo-Fijians were given the first opportunity to elect their own representatives in the 1929 elections. The other two were Vishnu Deo and Parmanand Singh.
Andrew Indar Narayan Deoki was an Indo-Fijian statesman who served his community as a social and religious leader, soccer administrator, member of the Legislative Council and Senate in independent Fiji and as Attorney General.
General elections were held in Fiji on 22 March and 8 April 1905.
General elections were held in Fiji on 28 April 1911.
General elections were held in Fiji between 19 May and 20 June 1914.
General elections were held in Fiji in June and July 1917.
General elections were held in Fiji in July, August and September 1920.
General elections were held in Fiji in 1929. They were the first in which Indo-Fijians were allowed to vote.
General elections were held in Fiji on 31 August 1932, although only one of the nine elected seats was contested.
Sir John Maynard Hedstrom was a Fijian businessman and politician. He served as a member of the Legislative Council for over 30 years. Alongside Robert Crompton, Henry Marks and Henry Milne Scott, he was one of the 'big four' that heavily influenced the Fijian economy and political sphere in the first half of the 20th century.
General elections were held in Fiji in July 1937, the first in which an equal number of Europeans and Indo-Fijians were elected.
Sir Henry Milne Scott was a Fijian lawyer, businessman, politician and international cricketer. Alongside Robert Crompton, Henry Marks and John Maynard Hedstrom, he was one of the 'big four' that heavily influenced the Fijian economy and political sphere in the first half of the 20th century.
John Percival Bayly was a Fijian businessman, politician and philanthropist.
Hon Wing William Yee was a Fijian engineer and politician. He was the first Chinese Fijian to be elected to the Legislative Council.
Captain David Robbie was a Scottish-born businessman, planter and politician in Fiji. He served as a member of the Legislative Council between 1905 and 1908.
Major William Edmund Willoughby-Tottenham was British army major and later a politician in Fiji, where he served as a member of the Legislative Council in two spells between 1922 and 1937.
