Ratu

Ratu

Ratu is a title used by Fijians of chiefly rank. An equivalent title, Adi is used by females of chiefly rank.-Etymology:Ra is a prefix in many titles and Tu is simply "chief"...

 Tatu Tevita Momoedonu is a Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

an chief

Ratu

Ratu is a title used by Fijians of chiefly rank. An equivalent title, Adi is used by females of chiefly rank.-Etymology:Ra is a prefix in many titles and Tu is simply "chief"...

 and has served as the fifth Prime Minister of Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

 twice - each time extremely briefly. Both appointments were to get around constitutional technicalities; his first term of office - on 27 May 2000 lasted only a few minutes. His second term - from 14 to 16 March 2001 was for two days. He subsequently served his country as Ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Using his chiefly title of "Taukei Sawaieke", he has recently led pushes for the Yasana

Provinces of Fiji

The Provinces of Fiji , , are the 14 administrative units into which the country is divided, particularly in relation to the provision of resources and services to the indigenous Fijian population by the Fijian Affairs Board...

 of Ba to secede from the Burebasaga

Burebasaga Confederacy

Burebasaga is the largest of the three confederacies that make up Fiji's House of Chiefs, to which all Fijian chiefs belong.-Composition of Burebasaga:...

 and Kubuna Confederacies

Kubuna Confederacy

Kubuna is one of three confederacies which comprise Fiji's House of Chiefs, to which all of Fiji's chiefs belong.-Details of Kubuna:It consists of the provinces of Tailevu, Naitasiri, Lomaiviti, and parts of the western provinces of Ba, Ra...

 to form their own fourth confederacy under the Tui Vuda

Tui Vuda

Tui Vuda is the traditional title of the paramount chief of the Vuda district in Ba Province on Fiji's northwest coast. Currently, the former president of Fiji, Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda holds the title.-References:*...

, Ratu

Ratu

Ratu is a title used by Fijians of chiefly rank. An equivalent title, Adi is used by females of chiefly rank.-Etymology:Ra is a prefix in many titles and Tu is simply "chief"...

 Josefa Iloilo

Josefa Iloilo

Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, CF, MBE, MSD, KStJ was the President of Fiji from 2000 until 2009, excluding a brief period from 5 December 2006 until 4 January 2007 . He held the traditional title of Tui Vuda, the paramount chief of the Vuda district in Ba Province on Fiji's northwest coast...

.
In 1999, Momoedonu had been elected

Fiji election of 1999

General elections were held in Fiji between 8 and 15 May 1999. They were the first election held under the revised Constitution of 1997, which instituted a new electoral system and resulted in Mahendra Chaudhry taking office as Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister.-Electoral system:Previously,...

 on the Fiji Labour Party

Fiji Labour Party

The Fiji Labour Party is a political party in Fiji, which holds observer status with the Socialist International. Most of its support at present comes from the Indo-Fijian community, although it is officially multiracial and its first leader was an indigenous Fijian, Dr. Timoci Bavadra. It is...

 (FLP) ticket to represent the Vuda

Vuda (Open Constituency, Fiji)

Vuda Open is an electoral division of Fiji, one of 25 open constituencies elected by universal suffrage . Like the other open electorates, it came into being in 1999 and was used for the parliamentary elections of 1999, 2001, and 2006...

 Open Constituency

Open constituencies (Fiji)

Open constituencies represent one of several electoral models employed in the past and present in the Fijian electoral system. They derive their name from the fact that they are "open": unlike the communal constituencies, the 25 members of the House of Representatives who represent open...

 in the House of Representatives

House of Representatives (Fiji)

The House of Representatives is the lower chamber of Fiji's Parliament. It is the more powerful of the two chambers; it alone has the power to initiate legislation...

, and subsequently appointed to the Cabinet

Cabinet (Fiji)

Fiji has the Westminster system - executive authority is vested nominally in a President, but exercised in practice by a Cabinet of Ministers, presided over by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is formally appointed, but not chosen, by the President: the President must appoint as Prime...

.