Prior to the 2006 election in Fiji, the two major political parties specifically promised that there would be an increase in the number of female candidates. Yet, of the 338 candidates they selected, only 27 (8 per cent) were women. This was a reduction of four compared with the 2001 election – and the same number that stood in 1999. How could there be so few women candidates when the parties had promised so much?

This is a chapter in the book edited by Jon Fraenkel and Stewart Firth (2007), ‘From Election to Coup in Fiji: The 2006 campaign and its aftermath’, ANU Press.