Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Joiji Konousi KONROTE
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Voreqe (Frank) BAINIMARAMA **
• Assembly: Fiji has a bicameral Parliament consisting of the Senate with 32 seats and the House of Representatives with 71 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by the president on the advice of the Great Council of Chiefs to serve a 5-year term.
• Interim Prime Minister is appointed by the president.
• In the Senate, 14 members are appointed by the president on the advice of the Great Council of Chiefs to serve 5-year terms, 9 members are appointed by the prime minister to serve 5-year terms, 1 members are nominated by the council of Rotuma to serve 5-year terms and 8 members are appointed by the opposition to serve 5-year terms. In the House of Representatives 71 members are elected by a majority system with preferential vote to serve 5-year terms.**

** Under the current electoral law, 25 are elected by universal suffrage from Open constituencies ("open" meaning that the franchise is open to all locally resident Fijian citizens, irrespective of their ethnic background), with the remaining 46 elected from communal constituencies, with 23 seats reserved for ethnic Fijians, 19 for Indo-Fijians, 1 for Rotuman Islanders, and 3 for "General Electors" - Europeans, Chinese, Banaban Islanders, and other minorities. Every Fijian citizen eligible to vote thus has two votes - one for an open electorate, and one for a communal electorate. Presently a new constitution is being drafted that would abolish the communal voting system, and move towards the principal of "one man, one vote."

IFES Resources: 

• Does IFES have a presence in Fiji: Yes, Programming