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2006 Fijian General Election
General elections were held in Fiji between 6 and 13 May 2006. Background The 1997 Constitution of Fiji required general elections for the House of Representatives to be held at least once every five years. Acting President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi issued a proclamation on 2 March 2006, effective from 27 March, dissolving Parliament. The previous parliamentary term had been due to expire on 1 October 2006. The Writ of Elections was issued on 28 March; candidates filed their nominations on 11 April and published their preference lists on the 13th, while voter registration closed on 4 April. Electoral boundary adjustments A major issue to be resolved ahead of the election was that of constituency boundaries. With the constitution requiring the 25 open constituencies and 29 of the 46 communal constituencies to be substantially equal in population, the Constituency Boundaries Commission, chaired by Barrie Sweetman, explored possible changes. Time constraints made the matter a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Representatives Of Fiji
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 Senate, by contrast, could amend or veto most legislation, but could not initiate it). 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. Also, the Prime Minister and Cabinet were required to retain the confidence of a majority of the House of Representatives to remain in office. The House of Representatives was suspended by the 2006 military coup. The 2013 Con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Political Parties In Fiji
This article lists political parties in Fiji. Prior to the 2006 Fijian coup d'état Fiji had a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party had a chance of gaining power alone, forcing parties to work with each other to form coalition governments. In January 2013 the military regime promulgated new regulations governing the registration of political parties. Parties are required to have 5,000 financial members, obey a code of conduct, and be named in the English language. The existing 16 registered parties were required to re-register under the new rules, but only two – the Fiji Labour Party and the National Federation Party – did so. The rest were dissolved on 15 February 2013 and their assets forfeited to the government. Current parties Registered parties Historical parties Political parties that have played a pivotal role in the past, but are now defunct. * All Nationals Congress – formerly a multiracial party. Split, with some joining the F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservative Alliance-Matanitu Vanua
The Conservative Alliance (Matanitu Vanua in Fijian) 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. Party founding The Conservative Alliance was publicly launched at Furnival Park in Toorak, Suva, on 15 June 2001 by defectors who broke away from the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soqosoqo Duavata Ni Lewenivanua
The United Fiji Party ( fj, Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua, SDL) 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 party was led in Parliament by Prime Minister Qarase. The party organization was headed up by Ratu Kalokalo Loki as President and by Jale Baba as General Secretary (later termed National Director) until early 2006, when he was transferred at the beginning of 2006 to managing the campaign for the 2006 General Election. Peceli Kinivuwai took over as National Director. History From the time of its inception, the SDL stood for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Coalition For Fiji
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. Coalition membership The formation of a Grand Coalition Initiative Group (GCIG) was announced on 30 July 2005 by Tomasi Vakatora, a former Cabinet Minister and Speaker of the House of Representatives. The original participatin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banaban Island
BanabaThe correct spelling and etymology in Gilbertese should be ''Bwanaba'' but the Constitution of Kiribati writes Banaba. Because of the spelling in English or French, the name was very often written Paanapa or Paanopa, as it was in 1901 Act. (; also Ocean Island) is an island of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean. A solitary raised coral island west of the Gilbert Island Chain, it is the westernmost point of Kiribati, lying east of Nauru, which is also its nearest neighbour. It has an area of , and the highest point on the island is also the highest point in Kiribati, at in height. Along with Nauru and Makatea (French Polynesia), it is one of the important elevated phosphate-rich islands of the Pacific. History According to ''Te Rii ni Banaba—The Backbone of Banaba'' by Raobeia Ken Sigrah, Banaban oral history supports the claim that the people of the Te Aka clan, which originated in Melanesia, were the original inhabitants of Banaba (Ocean Island), having arrived befor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Electors
"General Electors" is the term formerly used in Fiji to identify citizens of voting age who belonged, in most cases, to ethnic minorities. The 1997 Constitution defined General Electors as all Fiji citizens who were not registered as being of Fijian, Indian, or Rotuman descent. Also included were citizens who did qualify to be registered in the above categories, but who chose not to be. Persons of biracial or multiracial ancestry could opt to enroll either as General Electors, or as descendants of any of the other three groups to which they had an ancestral claim. General Electors were thus a diverse electorate, whose members included Europeans, Chinese, Banaban Islanders, and many smaller groups. They were allocated 3 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower and more influential house of the Fijian Parliament. The 1997 Constitution of Fiji was a compromise between what it saw as the ideal of universal suffrage, and the practical reality of the need to protect the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotuma
Rotuma is a Fijian dependency, consisting of Rotuma Island and nearby islets. The island group is home to a large and unique Polynesian indigenous ethnic group which constitutes a recognisable minority within the population of Fiji, known as "Rotumans". Its population at the 2017 census was 1,594, although many more Rotumans live on mainland Fijian islands, totaling 10,000. Geography and geology The Rotuma group of volcanic islands are located (Suva to Ahau) north of Fiji. Rotuma Island itself is long and wide, with a land area of approximately , making it the 12th-largest of the Fiji islands. The island is bisected by an isthmus into a larger eastern part and a western peninsula. The isthmus is low and narrow, only wide, and is the site of Motusa village ( Itutiu district). North of the isthmus is Maka Bay, and in the south is Hapmafau Bay. There is a large population of coral reefs in these bays, and there are boat passages through them. Rotuma is a shield volcano m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indians In Fiji
Indo-Fijians or Indian-Fijians (also known as Fiji Indians) are Fijian citizens of Non-resident Indian and Overseas Citizen of India, Indian descent, and include people who trace their ancestry to various regions of the Indian subcontinent.Girmit by Suresh Prasad 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%) (2007 census) out of a total of 827,900 people living in :Fiji . Although they hailed from various regions in the Indian subcontinent, the vast majority of Indo-Fijians trace their origins to the Awadh and Bhojpuri region, Bhojpur regions of the Hindi Belt in northern India. Indians in Fiji speak Fiji Hindi which is based on the Awadhi dialect with major influence from Bhojpuri. It is distinct to the Modern Standard Hindi spoken in India. The major home districts of Fiji's North Indian labourers were Basti district, Basti, Gonda distr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fijians
Fijians ( fj, iTaukei, lit=Owners (of the land)) are a nation and ethnic group native to Fiji, who speak Fijian and share a common history and culture. Fijians, or ''iTaukei'', are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. Indigenous Fijians are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago, though the exact origins of the Fijian people are unknown. Later they would move onward to other surrounding islands, including Rotuma, as well as blending with other (Polynesian) settlers on Tonga and Samoa. They are indigenous to all parts of Fiji except the island of Rotuma. The original settlers are now called " Lapita people" after a distinctive pottery produced locally. Lapita pottery was found in the area from 800 BCE onward. As of 2005, indigenous Fijians constituted slightly more than half of the total Fijian population. Indigenous Fijians are predominantly of Melanesian extraction, wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Suffrage
Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stance, subject only to certain exceptions as in the case of children, felons, and for a time, women.Suffrage ''Encyclopedia Britannica''. In its original 19th-century usage by reformers in Britain, ''universal suffrage'' was understood to mean only ; the vote was extended to women later, during the |
Open Constituencies
{{Politics of Fiji 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. Universal suffrage with a common voters' roll was first proposed by the Indo-Fijian-dominated National Federation Party (NFP) in the early 1960s, but was opposed by most leaders of the indigenous Fijian community, who were fearful that a common roll would favour Indo-Fijians, who then comprised a majority of the population. The proposal came up again intermittently throughout the 1970s, but nothing came of it. Open constituencies came into being when the 1997 constitution was adopted in 1997–1998. The Constitutional Commission chaired by former New Zealand Governor-General Sir Paul Ree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
