Marieta Rigamoto (born ) is a former Fijian civil servant, politician and

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, � ...

Education and early career

Rigamoto was educated at Dudley High School, and subsequently graduated with a Diploma in Tropical Agriculture from the Fiji College of Agriculture in 1965, and with a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in Science (BSc) from the University of Hawaii in 1969. She later completed postgraduate work at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

in 1971. She worked in the civil service from 1966 to 1998. Her assignments included the Ministry of Agriculture (1969–1982), and the Public Service Commission (1975–1976). She was Principal of the Fiji College of Agriculture from 1982 to 1989. Her last civil service appointment was in the Office of the President, from 1994. She retired from the civil service on 1 December 1998.

Political career

She contested the

1999 Fijian general election General elections were held in Fiji between 8 and 15 May 1999.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p653 They were the first election held under the revised Constitution of 199 ...

as an independent, and was elected to the

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 legislati ...

after winning a tight competition for the Rotuman Communal Constituency. She was subsequently appointed Assistant Minister for Agriculture. During the

2000 Fijian coup d'état The Fiji coup d'état of 2000 was a civilian coup d'état by hardline i-Taukei (ethnic Fijian) nationalists against the elected government of an Indo-Fijian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry on 19 May 2000. This was followed by an attempt on ...

she was taken hostage by George Speight. After turning down an offer of freedom, she was eventually released on 24 June after 37 days in captivity. She was re-elected in the 2001 election and appointed Assistant Minister in the Prime Minister's Department. Following the death of Ahmed Ali she was appointed Minister for Information and Media Relations in July 2005. In September 2005 she was forced to apologise for contempt of court, after commenting on evidence during the trial of an agriculture ministry official over a multi-million dollar corruption scam. In February 2006 she announced that she would not be contesting the 2006 election. Following her retirement she was named as one of a number of Ministers who has used farming assistance funding to buy votes during the 2001 election. Further allegations of her involvement were made at another trial in 2011. The investigation was ultimately discontinued in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigamoto, Marieta Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Rotuman members of the House of Representatives (Fiji) Alumni of the University of London University of Hawaiʻi alumni Fijian scientists Government ministers of Fiji Fijian educators 20th-century Fijian educators