Explained: The Fiji election and why it matters to India, China and the US

A day after casting their votes, the people of Fiji now await their future. Will ruling Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama come out on top for a third time or will former coup leader and one-time prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka leading the People’s Alliance Party triumph?

While provisional results are already coming in, the final result will be known on Sunday.

The election in the tiny Asia Pacific island is closely being watched by China, the United States and India, as the results could have long-term effects for all three nations. It is also left to be seen if these elections bring some stability after years of political upheaval.

What’s happening now?

On Wednesday, Fijians cast their vote in the country’s third democratic elections under the constitution that was implemented in 2013.

The two contenders in the race are — Josaia Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama leading the Fiji First party, the incumbent prime minister, and former coup leader and one-time prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, whose People’s Alliance Party has formed a coalition with Fiji’s oldest political party, the National Federation Party.

According to a report published by Reuters, the results as of now showed Fiji First with 45.88 per cent of the votes, while the People’s Alliance Party had 32.66 per cent of votes, while the National Federation Party had 9.29 per cent of votes.

Sitiveni Rabuka has already alleged irregularities in voting data after technical problems plagued the election office’s app. Earlier on Wednesday, the app had shown a People’s Alliance Party candidate leading. It then was taken offline for several hours and when it returned, it showed Fiji First ahead.

However, Fiji’s election supervisor, Mohammed Saneem, refuted the claims of irregularities and blamed a glitch for the issue. He said an interruption during the transfer of data to the app mismatched data to the wrong candidates. “Hence the vote numbers changed for certain candidates who suddenly got a lot of votes in the app,” he was quoted as telling The Guardian. The data had to be re-uploaded, which, he said, fixed the “anomaly”.

Rabuka has indicated that he may not adhere to the results, as he did not have faith in Saneem to remain impartial.

Why does Fiji matter?

The Pacific island is significant to China, the United States as well as India. In fact, this election is closely being watched by Beijing, who has come closer to the country owing to Bainimarama. Under Bainimarama, Fiji has come closer to China. He introduced the “look north” policy which allowed greater Chinese involvement in the country.

In the recent years, China has been committing more and more money in the region, particularly in the form of loans. It has also established a strong foothold in the country — presently, there are around 10,000 Chinese living there, a Confucius Centre located at the regional University of the South Pacific, as well as presence of Chinese state media in the capital city.

China will be wary if Rabuka comes to power as he has said that Fiji would pivot away from Beijing under his leadership.

On the other hand, the US is also attempting to cosy up to Fiji to counter to China’s drive for greater influence. In an attempt to increase its presence in the Pacific island, Fiji had hosted US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in February, where Washington had committed more diplomatic and security resources.

Also read: Chinese belligerence is only going to increase from US ambivalence on the Indo-Pacific

Fiji also holds special significance for India as 38 per cent of the population on the island are Indians. The movement of Indians to Fiji took place in 1879 when British colonialists transported indentured labourers to the sugarcane plantations.

Today, Indian-Fijians play a key role in the country’s business sector, running many successful retail and food and drink outlets. Such is their presence in the country that in May 1999 Mahendra Chaudhry became Fiji’s first prime minister of Indian ancestry. Initially, Fijian nationalists had opposed his premiership but he survived the no-confidence motion against him.

Indians hold importance in Fiji also comes through as Hindi is one of the three official languages spoken in the country, the other two being Fijian and English.

Fiji’s troubled politics

Fiji may be a beautiful, restive paradise but it has witnessed political strife — four coups in 20 years.

In 1987, Fiji experienced its first two coups. The first took place on 14 May when Lt Col Sitiveni Rabuka staged a military coup and overthrew Prime Minister Dr Timoci Bavadra and his Fiji Labour Party and National Federation Party coalition government. Just three months later in September, Rabuka staged yet another coup in which he revoked Fiji’s 1970 constitution and declared Fiji a republic, thus making it no longer part of the Commonwealth.

In 1990, Rabuka also introduced a constitution that allowed for political dominance for Indigenous Fijians.

On 19 May 2000, a civilian coup was carried out by George Speight in which he deposed Mahendra Chaudhry. The last coup was yet again a military coup spearheaded by Fiji military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama who overthrew the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and placed the country under military rule and dictatorship.

It was finally in 2013 that Fiji scrapped its political system that drew distinctions between the votes of indigenous Fijians and its large ethnic Indian population and the current election is the third democratic exercise in the island.

With inputs from agencies

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.