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1972 Fijian general election

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Field	Value
country	Fiji
type	parliamentary
previous_election	1966 Fijian general election
previous_year	1966
next_election	March 1977 Fijian general election
next_year	1977
seats_for_election	All 52 seats in the House of Representatives
majority_seats	26
election_date	15–29 April 1972
image1	Kamisese_Mara.jpg
leader1	Kamisese Mara
party1	Alliance Party (Fiji)
last_election1	23 seats
seats1	33
seat_change1	10
popular_vote1	388,550
percentage1	57.52%
swing1	5.58pp
image2
leader2	Sidiq Koya
party2	National Federation Party
last_election2	9 seats
seats2	19
seat_change2	10
popular_vote2	241,866
percentage2	35.81%
swing2	6.76pp
title	Prime Minister
posttitle	Subsequent Prime Minister
before_election	Kamisese Mara
before_party	Alliance Party (Fiji)
after_election	Kamisese Mara
after_party	Alliance Party (Fiji)

General elections were held in Fiji between 15 and 29 April 1972, 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.

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), 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.

Results

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.

Position	Minister
Prime Minister	Kamisese Mara
Deputy Prime Minister	Edward Cakobau
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests	Douglas Walkden-Brown
Attorney General	John Falvey
Minister for Commerce, Industries and Co-operatives	M. T. Khan
Minister for Communications, Works and Tourism	Penaia Ganilau
Minister for Education, Youth and Sport	Jone Naisara
Minister for Fijian Affairs	Willian Toganivalu
Minister for Finance	Charles Stinson
Minister for Health	James Shankar Singh
Minister for Labour	Jonati Mavoa
Minister for Lands, Mines and Mineral Resources	Josua Toganivalu
Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Social Welfare	Vijay R. Singh
Minister without Portfolio	George Cakobau
Source: [Pacific Islands Monthly](https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-332219489/view?partId=nla.obj-332256584#page/n18/mode/1up)

References

[[Dieter Nohlen]], Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p653 {{ISBN. 0-19-924959-8
[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-332193832/view?partId=nla.obj-332223344#page/n26/mode/1up Bigger House] ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', April 1972, p25
Nohlen et al., p648
[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-332219489/view?partId=nla.obj-332256270#page/n17/mode/1up Surprise changes in the Cabinet in Fiji] ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', June 1972, p13

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

elections-in-fiji 1972-in-fiji 1972-elections-in-oceania 1972-elections-in-the-british-empire april-1972-in-oceania

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