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The Fiji Islands are divided up into
71 constituencies, each of which elects one member of
the House of Representatives.
Of these, 46 are communal seat constituencies in which
a voter votes only for candidates from his/her own ethnic
community. The other 25 constituencies are open seats,
in which the voter votes for candidates from any ethnic
community. So a voter has two ballot papers in which
to cast two votes - one to choose his or her communal
seat representative and one to choose his/her open seat
representative.
How the constituencies are
divided
There are 6 urban Fijian communal constituencies of
which each have about the same number of voters. Another
11 Fijian constituecies follow the provincial boundaries,
while the provinces of Ba, Tailevu and Cakaudrove are
divided into 2 constituencies each.
Both the Indian and General Voter communal constituencies
have been drawn up so that each has roughly an equal
number of votes from that particular community.
The Rotuman communal constituency covers the whole of
Fiji.
The 25 open seat constituencies have been drawn up in
such a way that each has roughly the same number of
voters, and each has a good proportion of people from
the different ethnic communities.
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