Josefa Iloilo, 91, died on Sunday in a private Suva Hospital.
Fiji was not told immediately and under tight censorship did not learn of his death until military ruler Frank Bainimarama made “an important state announcement” in the afternoon.
Television and radio carried it live at 4 p.m.
Iloilo, a former school teacher, became deeply controversial when he backed a December 2006 coup in which Bainimarama overthrew a democratically elected government.
In his coup Bainimarama initially overthrew Iloilo, who was then president, and restored him later in January 2007.
In a strangely scripted military operation, Iloilo was restored to office by “president” Bainimarama, and then Iloilo appointed Bainimarama as prime minister.
The whole strategy was later ruled as unconstitutional by the Fiji Court of Appeal in 2009.
Iloilo, on Bainimarama’s orders, then sacked the court and declared the constitution null and void. He never spoke out against the coup or the ending of democracy.
Iloilo was vice president to Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara during the 2000 George Speight coup.
When Bainimarama declared martial law in May 2000, removing Mara, Iloilo became president.
Iloilo was a paramount chief of the Vuda district on Fiji’s northwest coast, using the title Tui Vuda.
In Fiji custom a death is not traditionally announced until heralds have gone into a district and convened a gathering of the other chiefs.
In pre-censorship Fiji, when Mara died in 2004, his death was reported on ahead of the formal announcements. There were then complaints that custom had not been followed, but Fiji at the time had a lively news media that was not given to waiting for the formal word.
