National constituencies

National constituencies are a former feature of the Fijian electoral system. They were created as a compromise between demands for universal suffrage on a common voters' roll, and for a strictly communal franchise, with Parliamentary constituencies allocated on an ethnic basis and elected only by voters enrolled as members of specific ethnic groups.

Demands for a common voters' roll were first raised by the Indo-Fijian-dominated National Federation Party in the early 1960s, but were resisted by leaders of the indigenous Fijian community, who feared that a common roll would favour Indo-Fijians, who were then in the majority. Concerns were also raised that as the fundamental faultline of Fijian politics was ethnic rather than ideological, direct competition between the races could lead to an escalation of ethnic tensions. As a compromise, the British colonial rulers established both communal constituencies (allocated and elected ethnically) and "cross-voting" constituencies in 1966. 25 members of the Legislative Council were elected from communal constituencies and 9 from cross-voting constituencies; the remaining 2 were nominated by the Great Council of Chiefs.

The cross-voting constituencies, which were later renamed national constituencies, were allocated ethnically but elected by universal suffrage. In the 1966 election, the first in which all adults had voted and the last before independence was granted in 1970, indigenous Fijians, Indo-Fijians, and minority groups (Europeans, Chinese, and others) were each allocated 3 cross-voting constituencies. Each elector thus had four votes: one for a communal constituency, and one for a national constituency for each of the three population groups. This required politicians to seek support from outside of their own ethnic group, without directly competing with candidates from other races.

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