By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific journalist
Campaigning is underway for the general election in Fiji later this year and early predictions are pointing to a shift in allegiances.
No date has been set yet for the general election in Fiji.
The ruling FijiFirst Party led by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama scraped through at the last election four years ago with the slimmest of margins.
- LISTEN TO RNZ PACIFIC WAVES: Dr Ratuva talks to Koroi Hawkins about the Fiji election
- Other reports on Fiji elections
Professor Steven Ratuva, director of the Macmillan Brown Centre of Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, said FijiFirst’s popularity was polling more than 60 percent in the 2014 election.
He said in 2018 that they were closer to 50 percent, and now the polls are indicating popularity levels as low as 22 percent.
“So that alone, if you do another poll and another one, if it talks about the same thing and even if you have a margin of error of about 10 or 20, that means it’s going to be a major shift in the political gravity, and there might be a change of government.
No consistent polling
Unfortunately, we don’t have consistent polling in Fiji, this is when they should be doing it, the major papers like The Fiji Times, the Fiji Sun,” he said.
“It’s important for the people of Fiji at this particular point in the election to be engaged in the democratic process of providing their views as to who should be there, before the actual election itself.
“And it’s good for political parties as well, whether you are in power or whether you are in opposition,” Professor Ratuva said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
