Serupepeli Naqase was 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 lawyer. He was employed by the Native Lands Trust Board from 1974 to 2001, when he became a private legal practitioner. He unsuccessfully contested the Tailevu North

Tailevu North (Fijian Communal Constituency, Fiji)

Tailevu North Fijian Provincial Communal is an electoral division of Fiji, one of 23 communal constituencies reserved for indigenous Fijians....

 Fijian

Fijian people

Fijian people are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. The Fijian people are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago, though the exact origins of the Fijian people are unknown...

 Communal Constituency as an independent candidate in the parliamentary election

Fiji election of 2001

The Constitution of Fiji was restored by a High Court decision on 15 November 2000, following the failure of the political upheaval in which the government had been deposed and the constitution suspended in May that year. On 1 March 2001, the Appeal Court upheld the decision. An election to...

 of September 2001.

Naqase, a native of Nayavu in the Wainibuka district of Tailevu

Tailevu

Tailevu is one of the 14 provinces of Fiji. One of eight Provinces based in Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island, its 755 square kilometers occupy the south-eastern fringe of the island, along with some central areas. At the 2007 census, the most recent to date, it had a population of 55,692, the...

 Province

Local government of Fiji

Fiji is divided administratively into four divisions, which are further subdivided into fourteen provinces; the self-governing island of Rotuma and its dependencies lie outside any of the four divisions. Each division is headed by a Commissioner, appointed by the Fijian government...

, collapsed in the Small Claims Tribunal courtroom in Suva

Suva

Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...

 on 24 January 2006, and was pronounced dead on his arrival at the local hospital, according to his obituary

Obituary

An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...

 in the Fiji Times

Fiji Times

The Fiji Times is a daily English-language newspaper published in Suva, Fiji. Established in Levuka on 4 September 1869, it is Fiji's oldest newspaper still operating....

.