EPFL Logo
fr|en
Login
Concept

Politics of Fiji

The politics of Fiji take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic. Fiji has a multiparty system with the Prime Minister of Fiji as head of government. The executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Parliament of Fiji. The judiciary is mostly independent of the executive and the legislature. Following the 2006 Fijian coup d'état, the power was subsumed by the military. Nominal head of state Ratu Josefa Iloilo abrogated the Constitution of Fiji and dismissed all Courts, after the Court of Appeal ruled that the post-coup Bainimarama government was illegal. A new Constitution was promulgated in September 2013, and a general election was held in September 2014, won by Bainimarama's FijiFirst Party. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Fiji as a "hybrid regime" in 2018. Constitution of Fiji |President |Wiliame Katonivere |FijiFirst

12 November 2021
Prime Minister
Sitiveni Rabuka
People’s Alliance
24 December 2022
}
Fiji's Head of State is the President. He is elected by Parliament of Fiji after nomination by the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition, for a three-year term. Although his role is largely an honorary one, modelled after that of the British Monarchy, the President has certain "reserve powers" that may be used in the event of a national crisis. In practice, attempts by the President to assert the reserve powers have proved problematic. In 2000, in the midst of a civilian coup d'État against the elected government, President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara announced on 27 May that he was assuming executive authority, but was evidently forced to resign two days later by the military Commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
The President is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Actual executive power is in the hands of the cabinet, presided over by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is elected by Parliament, under the 2013 Constitution of Fiji.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related concepts (2)
Fijians
Fijians (iTaukei) are a nation and ethnic group native to Fiji, who speak Fijian and share a common history and culture. Fijians, or iTaukei, are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. Indigenous Fijians are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago and are the descendants of the Lapita people. Later they would move onward to other surrounding islands, including Rotuma, as well as settling in other nearby islands such as Tonga and Samoa.
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the legislature, typically a parliament, to which it is accountable. In a parliamentary system, the head of state is usually a person distinct from the head of government.

Copyright © 2025 EPFL, all rights reserved

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.