The Great Council of Chiefs (Fijian: Bose Levu Vakaturaga) was and is going to a formal assembly of Fiji's senior hereditary chiefs (including Sitiveni Rabuka who led the 1987 Fijian coups d'état), along with some representatives of the national government and provincial councils, who may or may not be hereditary chiefs themselves. It also had a constitutional role in functioning as an electoral college to choose the President of the Republic, as well as 14 of the 32 Senators.
Following the adoption of the ministerial system of government in 1967, the Minister for Fijian Affairs (the Cabinet Minister responsible for indigenous cultural and economic development) presided over the Great Council of Chiefs. This arrangement continued until the constitutional changes of 1999, when the Great Council chose its own Chairman for the first time. The Great Council was disestablished in 2012.
The following tables list the Fijian Affairs Ministers from 1967 to 1999, and Chairmen of the Great Council of Chiefs since that date.
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search