Andrew Deoki - 1965 London Constitutional Conference

1965 London Constitutional Conference

In December 1964, the Governor asked each ethnic group to select its own delegates to the 1965 London Constitutional Conference. A.D. Patel nominated himself, James Madhavan, Chirag Ali Shah and Sidiq Koya, all members of the Federation Party. The Governor stated that the Federation group did not represent all Indian political opinion in Fiji and accepted Deoki’s proposal that all the 18 unofficial members of the Legislative Council attend. At the Conference, while the Federation members insisted on common roll, the ethnic Fijian and European members wanted the status quo to be maintained. Deoki proposed a compromise whereby 12 seats (four from each of the ethnic groups) were elected on communal roll, 18 were elected from cross-voting seats ( 6 Fijians, 6 Indians, 3 Europeans and one each from Chinese, Rotumans and Pacific Islanders, and the remaining 6 seats were to be elected on a common roll. Neither Deoki’s compromise nor Federation’s common roll was accepted, and instead the Conference decided on 25 communal seats (9 Fijians, 9 Indians and 7 Europeans), 9 cross-voting seats (three for each ethnic group) and two Fijians nominated by the Great Council of Chiefs. When the constitutional framework for Fiji was debated in the Legislative Council in December 1965, Deoki voted with the four Federation members against the new constitution.