The Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT), occasionally known in English as Fijian Political Party, was a party which dominated the politics of Fiji in the 1990s and was the mainstay of coalition governments from 1992 to 1999. Origins The party was founded in 1990 as the political vehicle of the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC), with the declared goal of uniting all indigenous Fijians. A new constitution promulgated in 1990, following two military coups in 1987, abolished the "national" parliamentary seats elected by universal suffrage (which had comprised almost half the House of Representatives); all members henceforth were to be elected by enrolled voters on "communal" electoral rolls that were limited to specific ethnic communities, each of which had an allocated number of seats in the House (37 indigenous Fijians, 27 Indo-Fijians, 1 Rotuman and 5 General Electors (Europeans, Chinese, Banaban Islanders and other minorities). The end to multiracial voting resulted in a trend towards intracommunal politics, and multiracial parties like the old Alliance Party of longtime Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara were therefore dissolved and replaced by parties representing principally a single ethnic group. Ratu Mara had announced his intention not to contest the election that was to be held in 1992, but his wife, Ro Lady Lala Mara, an Adi in her own right as the Roko Tui Dreketi, or Paramount Chief, of Burebasaga (one of three hierarchies to which all Fijian chiefs belong in the House of Chiefs), seemed a natural choice to lead a new party as the successor to his. In addition to the GCC, the powerful Methodist Church also endorsed the party. Major General Sitiveni Rabuka, who had led the 1987 coups, joined the new party also, along with his supporters, and he soon outmaneuvered Ro Lala for the leadership; and her family subsequently distanced themselves from the party. The SVT won the 1992 Fijian general election, but the subsequent defection of six parliamentarians left it without a workable majority. Internal strife weakened the party, and many influential members of the Great Council of Chiefs grew disillusioned with it, as did the Methodist Church. Despite this, it won a plurality in the parliamentary election that was called three years early in 1994, after the 1993 national budget defeat in parliament. In government The Vanua of Ra Province went against the GCC-supported SVT party during the 1992 elections and the SVT lost both