General elections were held in Fiji on 29 August 1953.[1]
The Legislative Council consisted of 32 members, including 16 'official' members who were civil servants, fifteen 'unofficial' members (five Europeans, five Fijians and five Indo-Fijians), and the Governor sitting as President of the Council.
For Europeans and Indo-Fijians, three of the five representatives were elected from single-member constituencies, with the other two appointed by the Governor. All five Fijian members were appointed from a list of ten candidates submitted by the Great Council of Chiefs.[2]
Voting for Europeans remained 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.[2] 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.[2]
Leaders of the Muslim Indo-Fijian community urged a boycott of the elections, calling for separate representation and for Urdu to be taught instead of Hindi.[3]
Constituency | Candidate | Votes | % | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
European members | |||||
align=left rowspan=3 | Eastern | Harold Brockett Gibson | 227 | 49.7 | Re-elected |
Fred Archibald | 210 | 46.0 | |||
William Edmund Willoughby-Tottenham | 20 | 4.4 | |||
Northern and Western | Maurice Scott | Unopposed | Re-elected | ||
align=left rowspan=3 | Southern | John Falvey | 487 | 59.8 | Elected |
James Burton Turner | 238 | 29.2 | |||
Charles Phillips | 89 | 10.9 | |||
Indo-Fijian members | |||||
align=left rowspan=2 | Eastern | James Madhavan | 886 | 55.7 | Re-elected |
Odin Ramrakha | 706 | 44.3 | |||
align=left rowspan=5 | Northern and Western | Ayodhya Prasad | 2,043 | 47.5 | Elected |
A. D. Patel | 1,919 | 44.6 | |||
Tulsi Ram Sharma | 280 | 6.5 | Unseated | ||
Babubhai Patel | 54 | 1.3 | |||
Hari Shankar | 5 | 0.1 | |||
align=left rowspan=3 | Southern | Vishnu Deo | 2,365 | 64.5 | Re-elected |
Hari Charan | 1,288 | 35.1 | |||
Hari Charan Akheel | 12 | 0.3 | |||
align=left colspan=5 | Source: Pacific Islands Monthly |
Type | Member | |
---|---|---|
Unofficial members | ||
Europeans | Stanley Cowled | |
William Granger Johnson | ||
Fijians | Edward Cakobau | |
Kamisese Mara | ||
Indo-Fijians | K. S. Reddy | |
Abdul Samad | ||
Official members | ||
Accountant General | W.E. Donovan | |
Commissioner of Police | E.K. Laws | |
Comptroller of Customs | A.R. Smith | |
Director of Agriculture | C. Harvey | |
Director of Education | G. Arthur | |
Director of Labour | C.S. Reay | |
Director of Lands | R.V. Cole | |
Director of Medical Services | J.M. Cruikshank | |
Director of Public Works | J.P. Bruen | |
Secretary for Fijian Affairs | Lala Sukuna | |
Appointed | George Cakobau | |
C.R. Nott | ||
Brahmanand Raghvanand | ||
Ex officio | ||
Attorney General | Brian Andre Doyle | |
Colonial Secretary | H.W. Davidson | |
Financial Secretary | E.R. Bevington | |
Source: Fiji Elections, Pacific Islands Monthly |