FijiFirst Party
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FijiFirst
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| Leader | Frank Bainimarama |
| President | Jiko Luveni |
| Secretary-General | Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum |
| Founded | 31 March 2014 |
| Headquarters | 96 Brown Street, Suva |
| Ideology | Classical liberalism |
| MPs |
32 / 50
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| Website | |
| fijifirst |
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FijiFirst is a registered political party in Fiji. The party was formed in March 2014 by the current Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama.
The party was launched on 31 March, 2014 with Bainimarama beginning a nationwide tour of the country in a campaign bus to collect the obligatory 5000 signatures necessary to register a political party.
Bainimarama says FijiFirst is a name that encompasses his political beliefs.
He listed his first candidate and party president; Jiko Luveni, the current Minister for Women.
The party collected over 40,000 signatures for the registration of the party.
The party appointed former Fiji Labour Party senator, Bijai Prasad as one of its Vice Presidents as well as the current Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum as the party General secretary. Bijai Prasad resigned as VP a day later citing a criminal conviction for larceny in the 1980s for which he had served jail time. The Tui Macuata, Ratu Viliame Katonivere was also selected as a vice president of the party. Vimlesh Kumar who is an accountant and an affiliate member of CPA Australia is listed as the treasurer.
The party's application for registration resulted in six complaints, including one from a party which had previously used the "Fiji First" name. Despite this, the party was registered on 30 May 2014.
The party released its first batch of 21 candidates on July 25, 2014 with Frank Bainimarama heading the list. As a result of the 2014 Fijian general elections, the party won 293,714 votes, 59.2% of all those who voted (495,105 voters), giving the party a clear majority with 32 of the 50 Parliamentary seats.
According to an article published in The Economist by an uncredited writer in Wellington, New Zealand, despite its electoral success, the FijiFirst government is also "despised" by "many" native Fijians for implementing the 2013 Constitution of Fiji which describes all of Fiji's citizens as "Fijians", regardless of their ethnicity, causing "some" indigenes to have fears of "cultural annihilation" and an "Islamic conspiracy to control the country", due to the Attorney General of Fiji being of Muslim background."
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Wikipedia