Muslims and Politics
Since 1929 the Fiji Muslim League has sought to obtain separate representation for Muslims, in the Legislative Council till 1970, and in Parliament (both the House of Representatives and the Senate) since 1970. Except for the period between 1932 and 1937, Muslims have been represented well in Fiji’s Parliament. From 1937 to 1963, there was always one Muslim nominated into the Legislative Council out of a total of five Fiji Indian representatives. The Muslim Political Front was formed to advance Muslim political rights and in 1966 it joined the newly formed Alliance Party, but voting trends have shown that most Muslims have tended to vote for the Party representing Fiji Indians, showing that their political aspirations are not different from the other 84% of the Fiji Indians.
As of January 2007, the President of the Fiji Muslim League is a prominent businessman, Hafiz Khan. Appointed to the Senate on 13 July 2005 to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Dr Ahmed Ali, Khan became one of the nine out of 32 Senators nominated by the Prime Minister of Fiji (a further 14 are chosen by the, eight by the Leader of the Opposition, and one by the Council of Rotuma). Khan was formally sworn in on 22 August 2005. In June 2006, he became Vice-President of the Senate and served in this capacity until the military coup of 5 December 2006.
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