Bainimarama seized power at gunpoint, too, ousting Laisenia Qarase's Government in December 2006, but at least the former military commander has brought a measure of stability to the South Pacific nation.
His Government has also introduced free education, built new roads and brought water and electricity to long-neglected rural communities.
And, significantly, it has enshrined racial equality in a new constitution, giving Indo-Fijians like Naidu - who have often felt like second-class citizens in their own country - equal status with indigenous Fijians.
Earlier coups - two in 1987, one in 2000 - removed Indian-led Governments, sparking anti-Indian violence and an exodus of Indo-Fijians.
But since 2006, "there's not that feeling all the time that something bad's going to happen", says another Rakiraki farmer, Anil Tikaran. "We can live virtually without fear."
The latest polls give the mercurial Bainimarama a popularity rating of 60 to 86 per cent, and suggest Fiji First will win the most seats - possibly even a clear majority - in the new, 50-member Parliament.
But not everyone believes the polls, and one unknown is the scale of a possible backlash by indigenous Fijians. They comprise about 57 per cent of Fiji's 850,000 population, and are furious about Bainimarama's abolition of the Great Council of Chiefs, a group of revered tribal leaders, and his insistence that the formerly influential Methodist Church stay out of politics.
Another factor which might be skewing the polls, is the reluctance of some voters to divulge their true intentions.
A "climate of fear" persists in Fiji, said an Amnesty International report this month. It documented continuing intimidation, harassment and torture of Government critics.
Those critics - who include opposition politicians, NGOs and trade unionists - say that, despite the presence of international observers, including some from New Zealand, the election will not be free and fair.
They point to the lack of a free media and to an election process tightly controlled by the regime, which has written all the rules on party membership, funding and campaigning.
Opponents of the dictatorship believe New Zealand and Australia acted prematurely in lifting long-standing travel sanctions against senior regime figures in March.
"People think that, just because there's a new constitution and elections are going to happen under it, things are okay," says Mahendra Chaudhry, the former Prime Minister whose Government was held hostage by George Speight for 56 days in 2000. "But they're not. The people of Fiji are being sold out."
One of the questions concerning Fijians is the likelihood of another coup - particularly if Bainimarama fails to win the election and concocts an excuse to call in the armed forces, now run by his hand-picked successor, Brigadier-General Mosese Tikoitoga.
A close family friend of Bainimarama, Tikoitoga swears the "coup culture" is over. But he also warns that the military will take a dim view of any attempt to change the regime-drafted constitution - Fiji's fourth since independence in 1970 - which grants immunity to everyone involved in the 2006 coup and its aftermath.
Bainimarama portrays that coup - which was followed by his abrogation of the constitution and declaration of martial law in 2009, prompting Fiji's suspension from the Commonwealth and Pacific Islands Forum - as a "revolution" aimed at rooting out corruption and creating a more just society.
"We're changing the mindsets of the people," he told the Herald during his party registration drive this year.
And why did that require a coup? "Unfortunately that's the only way these things can be done in Fiji."
Initially awkward, Bainimarama has become a more practised public performer, cracking jokes with the crowds who turn out to greet him and - showing a common touch rare among Fiji's ruling classes - giving out his mobile number.
"Even if my father is standing for another party, I'll still support Bainimarama," declared Shiu Kumar, a market stallholder in Ba, Chaudhry's birthplace.
Chaudhry and Qarase are disqualified from standing after being convicted, respectively, of fraud and corruption following what they say were politically motivated prosecutions.
Having installed Qarase as Prime Minister in 2000 after moving against Speight, Bainimarama is scathing about him, accusing him of pursuing an ethno-nationalist agenda.
The dictator says: "Fiji can't afford for me to lose this election, because there'll be no one to keep the revolution going. Sodelpa [the Social Democratic Liberal Party, founded by Qarase] will come back and we'll have the same old faces and the same old racist policies."
Despite his reassurances, few Fijians believe the armed forces are prepared to stay out of politics. Sitiveni Rabuka, who carried out the 1987 coups but now says he regrets his actions, rates the risk of another military takeover as "50-50".
Rabuka, who went on to become Prime Minister, regards the September 17 election as a "defining moment" for Fiji.
Chaudhry, for his part, warns that "the nation is already on a disaster path, and if these people get in again, it will be completely ruined. We'll have a dictatorship here in the guise of a democracy."
