1932 Fijian general election

The Legislative Council consisted of thirteen appointed Civil Servants, nine elected members (six Europeans and three Indo-Fijians) and three Fijians appointed from a list of between four and six potential candidates presented to the Governor by the Great Council of Chiefs. The Governor also sat in the Council as its President.[http://www.oocities.org/girmitya/FijiElections/1932.htm 1932 Legislative Council Election] Fiji Elections Archive

Voting for Europeans was restricted to men aged 21 or over who had been born to European parents (or a European father and was able to read, speak and write English), who were British subjects and had been continuously resident in Fiji for 12 months, and who either owned at least £20 of freehold or leasehold property or had an annual income of at least £120. A total of 1,533 Europeans (127 in Eastern, 259 in Northern, 750 in Suva, 254 in Vanua Levu & Taveuni and 143 in Western) were registered to vote."[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-311018361/view?partId=nla.obj-311036201#page/n17/mode/1up Personnel of New Council]", Pacific Islands Monthly, November 1932, p16

For Indo-Fijians, eligibility was also restricted to men aged 21 or over. They had to be a British subject or from British India, have lived continuously in the Fiji for at least two years, be able to read or write in English, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu or Urdu, and for the previous six months, have either owned property with an annual value of five years, had a net annual cash income of at least £75, or held a Government or municipal licence worth at least £5 annually. A total of 1,585 Indo-Fijians (140 in Eastern, 669 in Northern & Western and 776 in Southern) were enrolled.[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-311018361/view?partId=nla.obj-311035889#page/n16/mode/1up Fiji Indians seek common roll but abandon non-cooperation] Pacific Islands Monthly, November 1932, p15

In both ethnic categories, civil servants were barred from voting.

Between the 1929 elections and the 1932 elections, the leader of the Indo-Fijian community Vishnu Deo had been convicted of an offence and was barred from running for election.[http://fijielections.blogspot.com/2017/02/1932-fiji-legislative-council-elections.html 1932 Fiji Legislative Council elections] Fiji Elections The community decided to nominate only two candidates for the three seats, with no-one running in the Eastern Division.

In the European seats, the only candidates were the sitting Council members, resulting in all six being returned unopposed.

After the Legislative Council was opened, the Indo-Fijian members put forward another proposal for a common roll. It had been planned that both elected members would resign after the proposal was rejected, but Northern and Western member Muniswamy Mudaliar refused to give up his seat. Southern Division member K. B. Singh did resign and was re-elected in a by-election the following year, winning by a larger margin. The by-election was boycotted by the Muslim community, who were demanding their own reserved seat.[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-311148253/view?partId=nla.obj-311164404#page/n43/mode/1up/ Fiji Indian Election] Pacific Islands Monthly, July 1933, p42

class=wikitable style=text-align:right !colspan=3|1933 Southern Division by-election
Candidate !Votes !%
align=left|K. B. Singh	382	93.9
align=left|Narbahadur Singh	25	6.1
align=left|Informal votes	31	–
align=left|Total	438	100
align=left colspan=3|Source: [https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/132074/2/b10151060_Ali_Ahmed.pdf Ali]

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Fiji

Category:1932 in Fiji

Category:Elections in Fiji

Fiji

Category:August 1932