1972 Fijian general election

General elections were held in Fiji between 15 and 29 April 1972,[1] the first since independence from the United Kingdom in 1970. They were characterised by the lack of rancour between racial groups, typical of the 1966 general election and the 1968 by-elections.

1972 Fijian general election
15–29 April 1972
All 52 seats in the House of Representatives
Registeredn/a
Turnoutn/a
  First party Second party
 
Leader Kamisese Mara Sidiq Koya
Party Alliance NFP
Last election 22 seats 9 seats
Seats won 33 19
Seat change 11 10
Popular vote 388,550 241,866
Percentage 57.50% 33.90%
Prime Minister before election

Kamisese Mara
Alliance

 Subsequent Prime Minister

Kamisese Mara
Alliance

Fiji
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Fiji

The result was a landslide for the Alliance Party of the Prime Minister, Kamisese Mara, which won 33 of the 52 seats, and surprised many observers by capturing almost 25 percent of the Indo-Fijian vote. The Indo-Fijian-dominated National Federation Party led by Sidiq Koya won the remaining 19 seats. The election re-affirmed the political allegiances of the past, with the Alliance Party winning all the Fijian Communal seats with 82% of the vote, as well as all the General Communal seats. The National Federation Party (NFP) won all the Indian Communal sets with 73% of the vote. Voter turnout was 85.2% in the communal seats.

Electoral system

The 52-member House of Representatives consisted of 27 members elected from communal constituencies (12 Fijian, 12 Indo-Fijian and three general electors) and 25 members elected from national constituencies (10 Fijian, 10 Indo-Fijian and five general electors),[2] all elected by first-past-the-post voting.

Voters could cast up to four votes; one in their own communal constituency, and three in their national constituency, in which they voted for a Fijian, Indo-Fijian and general elector candidate.[3]

Results
Party Votes % Seats +/–
Alliance Party388,55057.533+10
National Federation Party241,86633.919+10
Fijian Independent Party1,5350.20New
Independents43,5216.40–2
Invalid/blank votes14,201–––
Total689,67310052+16
Total ballots cast169,126–––
Registered voters/turnout205,61785.5––
Source: Nohlen et al.

Aftermath

Following the elections, R. D. Patel of the National Federation Party became Speaker.

Prime Minister Mara carried out a cabinet reshuffle, appointing a new cabinet with 14 ministers, an increase from 12 in the previous government. He appointed two members to the Senate – John Falvey and Penaia Ganilau – to allow them to join the cabinet.[4]

Position Minister
Prime MinisterKamisese Mara
Deputy Prime MinisterEdward Cakobau
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and ForestsDouglas Walkden-Brown
Attorney GeneralJohn Falvey
Minister for Commerce, Industries and Co-operativesM. T. Khan
Minister for Communications, Works and TourismPenaia Ganilau
Minister for Education, Youth and SportJone Naisara
Minister for Fijian AffairsWillian Toganivalu
Minister for FinanceCharles Stinson
Minister for HealthJames Shankar Singh
Minister for LabourJonati Mavoa
Minister for Lands, Mines and Mineral ResourcesJosua Toganivalu
Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Social WelfareVijay R. Singh
Minister without PortfolioGeorge Cakobau
Source: Pacific Islands Monthly
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gollark: I don't think it can. They don't have orientation anyway IIRC.
gollark: Well, yes, it would be stupidly annoying to do and probably not worth it, but *cool*.
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gollark: Well, if `debug` provides some information - start/end lines and file, I think - you can do it even *more* hackily and try to load load the relevant lines of the relevant file. Or you can patch `load` to do that somehow.

See also

References
  1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p653 ISBN 0-19-924959-8
  2. Bigger House Pacific Islands Monthly, April 1972, p25
  3. Nohlen et al., p648
  4. Surprise changes in the Cabinet in Fiji Pacific Islands Monthly, June 1972, p13
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