House of Representatives (Fiji) - Electoral System

Electoral System

• See main articles: Electoral system of Fiji, Voting system of Fiji

The electoral system has been changed a number of times since independence in an effort to meet the competing demands of Fiji's diverse ethnic communities. In elections from 1972 through 1987, Fiji was divided into communal and national constituencies. The former were elected by voters registered as members of specific ethnic groups (12 indigenous Fijians, 12 Indo-Fijians, and 3 General Electors - Caucasians, Chinese, and other minorities); the latter were allocated to specific ethnic groups (10 indigenous Fijians, 10 Indo-Fijians, and 5 General Electors), but elected by universal suffrage. The system was a compromise between indigenous demands for a strictly communal franchise (based on fears of being swamped by an Indo-Fijian block-vote) and Indo-Fijian calls for universal suffrage, and was never widely popular. Ethnic Fijian nationalists blamed the national constituencies for the election of an Indo-Fijian dominated government in 1987, and following two military coups, they were abolished by the new republican Constitution of 1990.

The elections of 1992 and 1994 saw all 70 members elected from communal constituencies; this system was widely resented by many Indo-Fijians, who complained that only 27 seats were allocated to them as opposed to 37 to ethnic Fijians, despite the near equality of their numbers at that time. A further 5 seats were allocated to minority groups.

A constitutional review in 1997 introduced a new system, with 71 members. 25 are elected by universal suffrage from Open constituencies ("open" meaning that the franchise is open to all locally resident Fijian citizens, irrespective of their ethnic background), with the remaining 46 elected from communal constituencies, with 23 seats reserved for ethnic Fijians, 19 for Indo-Fijians, 1 for Rotuman Islanders, and 3 for "General Electors" - Europeans, Chinese, Banaban Islanders, and other minorities. Every Fijian citizen eligible to vote thus has two votes - one for an open electorate, and one for a communal electorate. The system remains controversial, however.

The open constituencies used at present differ from the former national constituencies in that while both comprise all registered voters on a common voters' roll, regardless of race, the open constituencies may be contested by members of any ethnic group whereas the national constituencies were ethnically allocated.