General elections were held in Fiji in July 1937, the first in which an equal number of Europeans and Indo-Fijians were elected.
Background
The elections had originally been due in 1935, but in July 1936 the term of the Legislative Council elected in 1932 was extended until 1936 following the passing of a motion by the elected members to make the Council an entirely appointed body due to concerns that Indo-Fijian voters would outnumber Europeans. The same concerns had led to the abolition of elections to Suva Municipal Council earlier in the year.
Electoral system
Following the changes to the constitution that allowed Indo-Fijians to vote in Legislative Council elections for the first time in 1929, further constitutional amendments were made in July 1936 that provided for an equal number of seats for Europeans, Fijians and Indo-Fijians in the Legislative Council, which was expanded from 25 to 31 members. The number of appointed civil servants was increased from 13 to 16, whilst there were five 'unofficial' members from each of the three main ethnic groups 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. Voting for Europeans remained restricted to men aged 21 or over who had been born to European parents, 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. A total of 1,348 Europeans were registered to vote. 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, Telegu 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. A total of 2,813 Indo-Fijians were registered to vote. In both ethnic categories, civil servants were barred from voting.
Results
In the four contested constituencies, 2,363 of the 2,497 registered voters participated in the election, a voter turnout of 94.6%.
John Maynard Hedstrom resigned from the Council in December 1937, and was replaced by John Trotter. Deve Toganivalu resigned shortly afterwards and was replaced by Glanville Lalabalavu. Following the death of Penijamini Veli in August 1938, Tiale Vuiyasawa was appointed as his replacement.
