The People's Coalition was an

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

of three

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area'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, formed in March 1999 to contest the

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

to be held in May that year. The three parties were the

Fiji Labour Party The Fiji Labour Party (FLP; ),() 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 indigenous Fijian, Dr. Timoc ...

(FLP), led by

Mahendra Chaudhry Mahendra Pal Chaudhry (; 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 leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, the former trade union leader beca ...

, the Fijian Association Party (FAP), led by Adi Kuini Speed, and the Party of National Unity (PANU), led by

Apisai Tora Mohammad Apisai Vuniyayawa Tora (5 January 1934 – 6 August 2020) was a Fijian politician, soldier, and trade unionist. As a labour leader, he was a fighter for dock workers. As a soldier, he served in Malaya and later served as President of t ...

. Campaigning against the SVT- NFP- UGP coalition supporting the incumbent Prime Minister

Sitiveni Rabuka Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka (; born 13 September 1948) is a Fijian politician, sportsman, and former soldier who has been serving as Prime Minister of Fiji since 24 December 2022. He was the instigator of two military coups in 1987. He was de ...

, the People's Coalition won a landslide victory, taking 52 of the 71 seats in the

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

. Of these, 37 seats were from Chaudhry's FLP, and, despite protests from the FAP, Chaudhry was sworn in as Fiji's first ethnic

Indo-Fijian Indo-Fijians () are Fijians of South Asian descent whose ancestors were Girmitiyas, indentured labourers. Indo-Fijians trace their ancestry to various regions of the Indian subcontinent. Although Indo-Fijians constituted a majority of Fiji's ...

Prime Minister. A fourth party, the Christian Democratic Alliance (VLV), joined the coalition after the election. All members of the coalition had defections both before and after the

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

which deposed the Chaudhry government in May 2000. All except the FLP disappeared from the House of Representatives at the

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

held to restore democracy in September 2001.

External links

Save of the original website of the People's Coalition website
People's Coalition Political parties established in 1999 Political parties disestablished in 2000 {{Fiji-party-stub