General elections were held in

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

between 26 September and 8 October 1966,Militant Indians active as Fiji goes to the polls
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', October 1966, p9 the last before independence in 1970 and the first held under

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 stanc ...

.1966 Fiji Legislative Council elections
Fiji Elections The result was a victory for the Alliance Party, which won 23 of the 34 elected seats. Its leader

Kamisese Mara Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, (6 May 1920 – 18 April 2004) was a Fijian politician, who served as Chief Minister from 1967 to 1970, when Fiji gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and, apart from one brief interruption in 1987, the fi ...

became the country's first Chief Minister the following year.

Background

A constitutional conference was held in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1965, which resulted in the Legislative Council being reorganised to consist of 36 seats; 14 for Fijians and other Pacific Islanders (two of which were nominated by the

Great Council of Chiefs 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 "interi ...

), 12 for Indo-Fijians and 10 for all other ethnic groups. The total number of registered voters was 156,683; 75,768 Indo-Fijians, 74,575 Fijians and 6,340

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 ...

. Members of the Legislative Council were elected from two types of constituencies; communal and cross-voting, with voters being able to cast four votes each. Each voter cast a single vote in one of the 25 communal constituencies, in which they could only vote for a candidate of their own ethnicity. In the three three-seat cross-voting constituencies, voters voted for a candidate from each of the three ethnic groups.

Campaign

For the first time, the elections were a largely partisan event, dominated by the Fijian Alliance Party and the Indo-Fijian

Federation Party The Federation Party was Fiji's first formal political party. The Citizens Federation, which had won three of the four seats reserved for Indo-Fijians at the 1963 elections, decided to formalize its role as a political party, which was officia ...

. A total of 79 candidates contested the elections, three of which were women.

Results

By constituency

Aftermath

Following the elections, the two independents joined the Alliance Party. A new government was formed with

as Leader of Government Business. The Executive Council consisted of six elected members and four civil servants. At the first meeting of the Legislative Council on 11 November,

Ronald Kermode Ronald is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse ''Rögnvaldr'', Hanks; Hardcastle; Hodges (2006) p. 234; Hanks; Hodges (2003) § Ronald. or possibly from Old English '' Regenweald''. In some cases ''Ronald'' is an Anglicised form of ...

was elected

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

unopposed, with

James Madhavan James Madhavan (died 20 December 1973) was an Indo-Fijian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives for most of the period between 1947 and 1973 and had two spells in the Executive Council. Biography Ma ...

elected Deputy Speaker. Full ministerial government was introduced on 1 September 1967. On the same day, the

MLCs walked out of the Legislative Council.And in Fiji the phrase is, 'We won't co-operate'
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', September 1967, pp19–20 After they missed three meetings, the nine Indo-Fijian communal seats were declared vacant and a series of

by-elections A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

held in 1968.

References

{{Fijian elections Elections in Fiji

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...