Inoke Kubuabola

Ratu Inoke Kubuabola is a Fijian politician who served as Leader of the Opposition in 1999 and 2000. He became leader of the Fijian Political Party (Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei, or SVT) following its defeat in the 1999 election and the subsequent resignation of its leader, the defeated Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, from Parliament. According to the Constitution, every political party with more than eight seats in the House of Representatives was entitled to representation in the Cabinet, but Kubuabola made demands unacceptable to the Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry. Rather than take up cabinet posts on terms acceptable to Chaudhry, the SVT decided to form the Opposition instead.

As Leader of the Opposition, Kubuabola was constitutionally empowered to choose 8 of the 32 members of the Senate. He sparked controversy by limiting his selection to members of opposition parties; Prime Minister Chaudhry claimed that according to Chapter 6 of the Constitution, the nominees of the Leader of the Opposition had to be proportional to party representation in the House of Representatives. Kubuabola countered that that meant proportional representation of opposition parties, not parties represented in the Cabinet. The situation was never resolved during his term as Leader of the Opposition; the coup of 2000 which ousted the Chaudhry government also deposed Kubuabola as Leader of the Opposition. Similar controversies have marked Government-Opposition relations since the restoration of democracy in 2001, however. A number of court cases are in progress, with a view to clarifying the situation.

Ratu Inoke is currently Fiji's High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea.