Bei Kai Viti

The Bai Kei Viti (BKV, sometimes known in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as ''Protector of Fiji'', or ''Fortress for the People of Fiji''), was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in Fiji. The party was formed by residents and some chiefs of

Ba Province Ba is a province of Fiji, occupying the north-western sector of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. It is one of fourteen provinces in the nation of Fiji, and one of eight based in Viti Levu. It is Fiji's most populous province, with a population o ...

to contest the 1999

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative ...

, but failed to win any seats in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. Following the

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

which deposed the elected government of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Mahendra Chaudhry Mahendra Pal Chaudhry ( hif, महेन्द्र पाल चौधरी; born 9 February 1942) is a Fijian politician and the leader of the Fiji Labour Party. Following a historic election in which he defeated the long-time former lead ...

in 2000, the BKV contested the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

held to restore democracy in 2001. This time, they had former interim Prime Minister Ratu Tevita Momoedonu (a defector from the

Fiji Labour Party The Fiji Labour Party (FLP; fj, Ilawalawa Cakacaka ni Viti), 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 i ...

) as their leader, but once again, they won no seats, though they received 2.2 percent of the popular vote. In 2004 the BKV merged with the Party of National Unity (PANU), also a Ba-based party, to form the

People's National Party The People's National Party (PNP) is a social-democratic political party in Jamaica, founded in 1938 by independence campaigner Osmond Theodore Fairclough. It holds 14 of the 63 seats in the House of Representatives, as 96 of the 227 local go ...

(PNP) under the leadership of former Cabinet Minister

Meli Bogileka Ratu Meli Bogileka is a Fijian politician. He was the Secretary of the People's National Party (PNP) up to its decision to merge into the Party of National Unity (PANU) on 5 March 2006. This merger, an affair complicated by several about-tur ...

, and was officially deregistered on 14 August 2005. Bogileka declared that officials from the two parties wanted Ba Province to have a single party to represent their interests at the

parliamentary election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

scheduled for 2006. The merger proved complicated, however. PANU spokesman Senator Ponipate Lesavua announced on 11 January 2006 that he had reregistered the defunct party, and on 23 January that the BKV had also seceded from the PNP and had signed an agreement to merge with PANU. On 5 March, the BKV, PANU, and the PNP all decided to resume the merger, but this time under the PANU banner. Defunct political parties in Fiji Political parties established in 1999 Political parties disestablished in 2005 {{Fiji-party-stub