The Fiji election of 14 December 2022 was the third held under the 2013 Constitution. It resulted in a narrow victory for the opposition parties, which together obtained 29 of the 55 seats. In the Prime Ministerial vote held on Christmas Eve, People’s Alliance Party leader Sitiveni Rabuka was selected as Prime Minister by 28 votes to 27. The election brought to an end 16 years of semi-authoritarian rule by the military-backed government that assumed office in the wake of the December 2006 coup. Bainimarama’s FijiFirst Party had won the 2014 elections with 59% of the popular vote and the 2018 elections, more narrowly, with 50.02% of the nationwide vote. In December 2022, that party secured 42.6% of the vote, which was enough to make it the largest party in parliament with 26 seats, but not enough to form a government. The December 2006 coup leader and 2007-22 Prime Minister Frank (‘Voreqe’) Bainimarama became Leader of the Opposition.
About the Author
Prof Jon Fraenkel
Jon Fraenkel is a Professor of Comparative Politics in the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington. He was formerly a Senior Research Fellow based at the Australian National University (2007-12) and the University of the South Pacific in Fiji (1995-2007). He is Pacific correspondent for The Economist, and has published extensively on the politics of Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea. He also works on deeply divided societies, particularly Northern Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
