• DOI:10.1080/00223340220139298
• Corpus ID: 162166648

In George Speight's Shadow: Fiji General Elections of 2001

@article{Lal2002InGS,
  title={In George Speight's Shadow: Fiji General Elections of 2001},
  author={Brij V. Lal},
  journal={The Journal of Pacific History},
  year={2002},
  volume={37},
  pages={101 - 87}
}

• B. Lal
• Published 1 June 2002
• Political Science
• The Journal of Pacific History

On 25 August 2001, Fiji went to the polls two years after the last election in May 1999 which had elected a Fiji Labour Party-led People’s Coalition to government. That government was overthrown in a civilian coup led by George Speight on 19 May 2000.2 Fifteen months of confusion, anxiety and violence later, the worst in modern Fijian history, Fiji went to the polls again, under the 1997 multiracial constitution which Speight and the Fiji military forces had declared abrogated, but which had been upheld by the High Court and subsequently by the Fiji Court of Appeal. The holding of the elections was a signiŽ cant achievement in the circumstances, but instead of resolving the country’s political difŽ culties and healing wounds, it ended up polarising ethnic relations even further, embroiling major political parties in an acrimonious debate about power sharing mandated by the constitution. Fiji’s agony continues. A record 26 mostly indigenous Fijian political parties registered to contest the elections, but only 18 Ž elded candidates for the 71-seat lower house. Interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s Soqosoqo ni Duavata Lewenivanua (SDL), launched on the eve of the elections, won 32 seats, deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry’s Fiji Labour Party 27, the coup-supporting Conservative Alliance Matanitu Vanua (CAMV), among whose successful candidates was George Speight himself, six seats, the National Federation Party one and the breakaway New Labour Unity Party (NLUP) formed by Tupeni Baba, deputy prime minister in the People’s Coalition government, and independents two each. The smaller splinter parties failed to make an impact. What was surprising was the failure of more established parties which had fared well in the past, including the Fijian Association Party (FAP), a senior partner in the People’s Coalition government, and the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT), the party in power for much of the 1990s. George Speight cast a long shadow over the campaign. Fijian political parties competed with each other to court his supporters, promising to fulŽ l his agenda of enshrining Fijian political paramountcy in perpetuity. Otherwise, there was little public enthusiasm for the election. The electorate was genuinely pessimistic and apprehensive. On the Indo-Fijian side, there was a pervasive feeling of fear and anxiety, the memory of 19 May still fresh. ‘Fijians will do whatever they want’, a voter told me. ‘What’s the point of voting?’ The relatively low voter turnout — 78.6% — and a surprisingly large number of informal votes indicated indifference and protest. On the Fijian side where the voter turnout was equally low, there was dismay and disillusionment at the large number of parties, with divergent and sometimes diametrically opposed agendas, despite the effort of the Methodist Church to forge a semblance of political unity. Public conŽ dence in the most important institutions of the state was at its lowest ebb, their reputation for professionalism, independence and integrity tainted or otherwise compromised. Among them was the police force. The Daily Post summed up the popular perception.