Editing Politics of Fiji (section)

=== Legislative branch ===
Under the [[2013 Constitution of Fiji|2013 Constitution]], Fiji's Parliament is [[unicameral]]. Its 50 members are elected for four-year terms by [[Party-list proportional representation]], with the entire country voting as a single constituency. To win election to Parliament, a political party (or an independent candidate) must win five percent of the total valid vote nationwide. Fiji's system differs from that of many other countries using the party-list system, however, in that voters do not vote for a party, as such, but for an individual candidate. Each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate. The votes for all candidates on a party ticket are pooled, their aggregate as a percentage of the total valid vote (minus votes cast for parties falling short of the five-percent threshold) determining the number of seats in Parliament to which their party is entitled. The eligible number of candidates from a political party are elected in the order of the number of votes they received individually. In the [[2014 Fijian general election|2014 elections]], for example, the [[FijiFirst]] Party polled 59.2 percent of the valid vote. When votes for small parties polling less than the five-percent threshold were excluded, this entitled FijiFirst to 32 of the 50 seats. These were filled by the 32 FijiFirst candidates who polled the highest number of votes as individuals.

Before the adoption of the 2013 Constitution, Fiji's Parliament consisted of two houses. The more powerful of the two chambers, the House of Representatives, had 71 members, elected for five-year terms. 25 were elected by universal suffrage. The remaining 46 were reserved for Fiji's [[Demographics of Fiji|ethnic communities]] and were elected from communal electoral rolls: 23 [[Fijians]], 19 [[Indians in Fiji|Indo-Fijians]], 1 [[Rotumans|Rotuman]], and 3 "[[general electors]]" (Europeans, [[Chinese in Fiji|Chinese]], and other minorities). The House chose a [[Speaker of the House of Representatives of Fiji|Speaker]], who was not allowed to be a present member of the House.

The "upper chamber", the [[Senate of Fiji|Senate]], was primarily a house of review: it could not initiate legislation, but could amend or reject it. The 32 senators were formally appointed by the President on the nomination of the [[Great Council of Chiefs]] (14), the [[Prime Minister of Fiji|Prime Minister]] (9), the [[Leader of the Opposition (Fiji)|Leader of the Opposition]] (8), and the [[Council of Rotuma]] (1). Senators as well as Representatives could serve as cabinet Ministers.

When the Parliament was bicameral, the [[Attorney General of Fiji|attorney-general]], Fiji's top legal official who sits in the cabinet, was the only member of Parliament permitted to attend sessions of both chambers. The attorney-general had voting rights only in the chamber they were elected or appointed to and authorised to attend and participate in debates in the other chamber.