Fijian general election, 1972

Fiji

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Fiji

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General elections were held in Fiji between 15 and 29 April 1972, the first since independence from the United Kingdom in 1970. They were characterised by the lack of rancour between racial groups, typical of the 1966 general election and the 1968 by-elections.

The result was a landslide for the Alliance Party of the Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, which won 33 of the 52 seats, and surprised many observers by capturing almost 25 percent of the Indo-Fijian vote. The Indo-Fijian-dominated National Federation Party, led by Sidiq Koya, won the remaining 19 seats.

The election re-affirmed the political allegiances of the past, with the Alliance Party winning all the Fijian Communal seats, with 82% of the votes, as well as all the General Communal seats. The National Federation Party (NFP), on the other hand, won all the Indian Communal sets with 73% of the votes. Voter turnout was 85.2% in the communical seats.

After the election, cooperation between the two major parties continued with R.D. Patel of the NFP elected the speaker of the Alliance dominated House of Representatives.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats
Alliance Party	388,550	57.5	33
National Federation Party	241,866	33.9	19
Fijian Independent Party	1,535	0.2	0
Independents	43,521	6.4	0
Invalid/blank votes	14,201	-	-
Total	689,673	100	52
Source: Nohlen et al.