1994 Fijian general election

1994 Fijian general election

← 1992 18–25 February 1994 1999 →

All 70 seats in the House of Representatives
35 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
NFP
Leader Sitiveni Rabuka Jai Ram Reddy Mahendra Chaudhry
Party SVT NFP Labour
Last election 30 seats 12 seats 13 seats
Seats won 31 20 7
Seat change Increase 1 Increase 8 Decrease 6
Popular vote 145,041 63,097 51,951
Percentage 40.91% 17.79% 14.65%
Swing Decrease 2.73pp Increase 1.72pp Decrease 1.42pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Josefata Kamikamica None
Party FAP GVP ANC
Last election 5 seats 0 seats
Seats won 5 4 1
Seat change New Decrease 1 Increase 1
Popular vote 34,976 4,339 21,808
Percentage 9.86% 1.22% 6.15%
Swing New Decrease 0.22pp Decrease 1.8pp

Prime Minister before election

Sitiveni Rabuka
SVT

Elected Prime Minister

Sitiveni Rabuka
SVT

General elections were held in Fiji between 18 and 25 February 1994.[1] This election, the second since Fiji had become a republic following two military coups in 1987, was brought about by splits within the ruling Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT) and by the withdrawal of the support of the Fiji Labour Party, which claimed that Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka had reneged on a deal to review Fiji's electoral system, which was heavily weighted in favour of ethnic Fijians, despite their being nearly equal in number to Indo-Fijians.

The elections produced little change among the 38 seats in the House of Representatives that were reserved for ethnic Fijians and Rotuman Islanders. The SVT won 33 seats, and the Fijian Association Party of former Finance Minister Josefata Kamikamica won five. The Fijian Nationalist Party of Sakeasi Butadroka, which advocated the forced repatriation of all Fijians of Indian descent, lost the three seats that it had won in the previous election. The five "general electorates," reserved for Fiji's European, Chinese, and other minorities, showed similarly little change, with the General Voters Party winning four seats and the All Nationals Congress, one. There was a very significant change in the composition of the 27 Indo-Fijian seats, however. The Fiji Labour Party lost 6 of its 13 seats, with the National Federation Party winning the remaining 20. The NFP leader, Jai Ram Reddy, enjoyed a personal rapport with Rabuka; although they did not enter into a formal coalition, their negotiations led to a substantial overhaul of the Fijian Constitution which paved the way for the historic election of 1999, which brought Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, to power.

Following the 1994 election, Rabuka formed a coalition with the General Voters Party and remained Prime Minister.

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p653 ISBN 0-19-924959-8