FACTBOX: Fiji's election process

SUVA, Fiji (Reuters) - Ousted Fiji Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry won his seat in elections called after he was deposed last year in a racially inspired coup and was virtually guaranteed a place in any post-coup government. The vote count continues.

Key facts on Fiji's political process and a brief timline.

-- The constitution vests legislative powers through a president, senate and house of representatives. The house of representatives is the lower house in which the government is formed and which initiates bills for passage through the senate to the president.

-- Executive authority is held by the president, who is appointed by the Great Council of Chiefs. The current president in Josefa Iloilo, an indigenous Fijian.

-- The president appoints 32 senators, the Great Council of Chiefs nominates 14, the prime minister nine, eight are nominated on the advice of the leader of the opposition and one is appointed by the Rotuma Island council.

-- Parliament comprises 71 members -- made up of 25 open-race seats, 23 indigenous Fijian seats, 19 Indian, one from Rotuma and three others.

-- The cabinet is made up of the prime minister, who commands the respect of the majority in parliament and other ministers he or she chooses to work with.

-- Under the 1997 constitution, the prime minister is required to establish a multi-party cabinet, representing as far as possible the parties in parliament.

-- A former British colony in the South Pacific, Fiji gained independence in 1970 and was then led by the Alliance government of first prime minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.

-- Sitiveni Rabuka led two military coups in 1987 and declared the island a republic.

-- Rabuka became prime minister in 1990 and was defeated two years later. He was re-appointed prime minister in 1994, promising to review the 1990 constitution, which led to a new one in 1997.

-- In 1999, Labour won the first general election under the 1997 constitution led by Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister. His Labour Party had enough seats to govern outright, but formed the "People's Coalition" with the Fijian Association Party and the Party of National Unity. The coalition won nearly 70 percent of the total seats.

-- Chaudhry was overthrown by a civilian coup, led by George Speight, on May 19, 2000.

-- Head of the Fiji military, Commander Frank Bainimarama, assumed control of the government after the parliament was dissolved by President Ratu Mara in the wake of the coup.

-- Within days Bainimarama swore in an interim military government led by Laisenia Qarase.

Timeline

-- British naval captain William Bligh is credited with recording the location of Fiji in 1789. The first Europeans to land and live among the Fijians were shipwrecked sailors and runaway convicts from the Australian penal settlements.

-- Indians were shipped to Fiji between 1879 and 1916 by the British as indentured workes to work on sugar plantations. Many stayed on as independent farmers. Their descendants now comprise 44 percent of Fiji's 800,000 population.

-- Tourism and sugar industries, which have suffered since the coup, are, respectively, the country's largest income earners.

Reuters contributed to this report.