Communal Constituencies
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Communal Constituencies
{{Politics of Fiji 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 (Europeans, Chinese, Banaba Islanders, and others) 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. History In 1904, the British colonial authorities reserved seven seats in the Legislative Council for European voters; in 1929, provision was made for wealthy Indians to elect one representative also. (Indigenous Fijians, however, were represented by nominees of the Great Council of Chiefs and did not vote directly for their representatives until 1966). Although the number allocated to the various ethnic communities varied over the years, the basi ...
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Electoral System Of Fiji
Historical overview Fiji's electoral system is the result of complex negotiations, compromises, and experiments conducted over the years leading up to and following independence from British colonial rule in 1970. A number of devices have been tried at various times to accommodate the reality that the primary faultline in Fijian politics is not ideological, but ethnic. The competing political interests of the indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians defined the political landscape for a generation. There are also small communities of Europeans, Chinese, and other minorities. In colonial times, the British authorities established a legislative council with mostly advisory powers, which were gradually extended. European males were enfranchised in 1904 an allocated 7 elective seats in the Legislative Council. Fijians were represented by 2 chiefs chosen by the colonial Governor from a list of 6 nominees submitted by the Great Council of Chiefs. There was initially no represent ...
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Alliance Party (Fiji)
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 (with a third of the seats before 1973, and a sixth thereafter, allocated to them). Indo-Fijians were less supportive, but the Fijian-European block vote kept the Alliance Party in power for more than twenty years. Formation of the Alliance Party The formation of the Alliance Party was the direct result of the call, in November 1965, by the Governor, Sir Derek Jakeway, ''"for leaders of imagination, who have the interests of all the people of Fiji truly at heart, to build political alliances with the object of contesting el ...
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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 ...
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Vasu
The Vasus () refers to a group of deities in Hinduism associated with fire and light. They are described to be the attendant deities of Indra, and later Vishnu. Generally numbering eight and classified as the Ashtavasu, they are described in the Ramayana as the children of Kashyapa and Aditi, and in the Mahabharata as the sons of Manu or Dharma and a daughter of Daksha named Vasu. They are eight among the thirty-three gods featured in the Vedas. Etymology The Sanskrit term ''Vasu''(s) is translated as the "bright ones". List There are varying lists of the eight Vasus in different texts, sometimes only because particular deities have varying names. The following are names and meanings according to the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Manava Purana, and according to the Mahabharata, as normally equated: Though the ''Shatapatha Brahmana'' uses the '' Brhad-Aranyaka'' names, most later texts follow the ''Mahabharata'' names with the exception that Āpa 'water' usually appears in place ...
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James Ah Koy
Sir James Michael Ah Koy, , ( zh, 何志美; born November 30, 1936) is a Fijian businessman, politician, and diplomat of Chinese and Fijian descent. He is Executive Chairman of Kelton Investments, the IT service provider Datec Group Ltd., Honorary Consul of the Republic of Georgia to Fiji and a board director of forty-six companies. He served as a Cabinet Minister in the 1990s, and was a Senator from 2001 to 2006. He is Fiji's past ambassador to China. He served until December 2010, and was replaced by Esala Teleni. Early life James Ah Koy was born in Lautoka to a Chinese father and to a native Kadavu mother. Career Ah Koy's first foray into politics was in 1966, when he stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in the general elections that year. In the early 1980s, he became manager of a family investment company owned by the then-Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, and was subsequently selected by Mara's political party, the Alliance Party, as a ...
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Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive varieties of the Chinese language. The estimated 1.4 billion Han Chinese people, worldwide, are primarily concentrated in the People's Republic of China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau) where they make up about 92% of the total population. In the Republic of China (Taiwan), they make up about 97% of the population. People of Han Chinese descent also make up around 75% of the total population of Singapore. Originating from Northern China, the Han Chinese trace their cultural ancestry to the Huaxia, the confederation of agricultural tribes living along the Yellow River. This collective Neolithic confederation included agricultural tribes Hua and Xia, hence the name. They settled along the Central Plains around the middle and lo ...
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Sitiveni Rabuka
Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, (; born 13 September 1948) 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. Rabuka was elected as leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party in 2016, succeeding Leader of the Opposition Ro Teimumu Kepa, who publicly disapproved of Rabuka's nomination to replace her. He was appointed as the leader of the Opposition to Parliament in 2018, following the 2018 election defeat. He was the only nomination for the position and his nomination was moved by Ro Teimumu Kepa and seconded by Biman Prasad. He was ousted as SODELPA leader by Viliame Gavoka in a leadership contest. R ...
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Soqosoqo Ni Vakavulewa Ni Taukei
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. Origins The party was founded in 1990 as the political vehicle of the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC), with the declared goal of uniting all indigenous Fijians. A new constitution promulgated in 1990, following two military coups in 1987, abolished the "national" parliamentary seats elected by universal suffrage (which had comprised almost half the House of Representatives); all members henceforth were to be elected by enrolled voters on "communal" electoral rolls that were limited to specific ethnic communities, each of which had an allocated number of seats in the House (37 indigenous Fijians, 27 Indo-Fijians, 1 Rotuman and 5 General Electors (Europeans, Chinese, Banaban Islanders and other minorities). The end to multiracial voting resulted in a trend ...
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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 ...
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New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ...
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Governor-General Of New Zealand
The governor-general of New Zealand ( mi, te kāwana tianara o Aotearoa) is the viceregal representative of the monarch of New Zealand, currently King Charles III. As the King is concurrently the monarch of 14 other Commonwealth realms and lives in the United Kingdom, he, on the advice of his New Zealand prime minister, appoints a governor-general to carry out his constitutional and ceremonial duties within the Realm of New Zealand. The current office traces its origins to when the administration of New Zealand was placed under the Colony of New South Wales in 1839 and its governor was given jurisdiction over New Zealand. New Zealand would become its own colony the next year with its own governor. The modern title and functions of the "governor-general" came into being in 1917, and the office is currently mandated by Letters Patent issued in 1983, constituting "the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Realm of New Zealand". Constitutional functions of the governor ...
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Paul Reeves
Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Christian missionary and writer *Pope Paul (other), multiple Popes of the Roman Catholic Church *Saint Paul (other), multiple other people and locations named "Saint Paul" Roman and Byzantine empire *Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus (c. 229 BC – 160 BC), Roman general *Julius Paulus Prudentissimus (), Roman jurist *Paulus Catena (died 362), Roman notary *Paulus Alexandrinus (4th century), Hellenistic astrologer *Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta (625–690), Greek surgeon Royals *Paul I of Russia (1754–1801), Tsar of Russia *Paul of Greece (1901–1964), King of Greece Other people *Paul the Deacon or Paulus Diaconus (c. 720 – c. 799), Italian Benedictine monk *Paul (father of Maurice), the father of Maurice, Byzan ...
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