Senate of Fiji

The Senate of Fiji was the upper chamber of Parliament. It was abolished by the 2013 Constitution of Fiji, after a series of military coups. It was the less powerful of the two chambers; it could not initiate legislation, but could amend or veto it. The Senate's powers over financial bills were more restricted: it could veto them in their entirety, but could not amend them. The House of Representatives could override a Senatorial veto by passing the bill a second time in the parliamentary session immediately following the one in which it was rejected by the Senate, after a minimum period of six months. Amendments to the Constitution were excepted: the veto of the Senate was absolute. Following the passage of a bill by the House of Representatives, the Senate had 21 days (7 days in the case of a bill classified as "urgent") to approve, amend, or reject it; if at the expiry of that period the Senate had done nothing about it, it was deemed to have passed the bill.

The Senate had 32 members. Formally, they were appointed by the President for five-year terms coinciding with the term of the House of Representatives. Constitutionally, however, the President was required to accept the nominees of specified institutions. 14 Senators were chosen by the Bose Levu Vakaturaga (Great Council of Chiefs), though in practice it had chosen to delegate this prerogative to Fiji's 14 Provincial Councils, each choosing one Senator. A further 9 Senators were chosen by the Prime Minister and 8 by the Leader of the Opposition. The one remaining Senator was selected by the Council of Rotuma, a Fijian dependency.

From among their own members, the Senators used to elect a President and Vice-President, whose roles were similar to those of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively. As of September 2006, the President of the Senate was Ratu Kinijoji Maivalili; the Vice-President was Hafiz Khan. They were chosen in June 2006 to replace Taito Waqavakatoga and Kenneth Low, both of whom had retired from the Senate.

...
Wikipedia