One of Fiji’s three deputy prime ministers, Viliame Gavoka, has appealed to the country’s prime minister to review his stance on Japan’s disposal of treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka supports Japan’s compliance with safety protocols outlined by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

However, Rabuka also spoke about the need for an independent scientific assessment.

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He has also signed off on the Melanesian Spearhead Group’s Udaune Declaration on Climate Change, in which his fellow prime ministers of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Oslands and Vanuatu, and spokersperson of FLNKS of New Caledonia, “strongly urged Japan “not to discharge the treated water into the Pacific Ocean until and unless the treated water is incontrovertibly proven scientifically to be safe to do so and seriously consider other options like use in concrete”.

Japan has, however, already begun the release of the treated nuclear wastewater in spite of strong condemnation from the region and across the world.

Gavoka, who is also leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), further highlighted the concerns of his party’s Youth section which also implored Rabuka to reconsider his position.

The SODELPA leader acknowledged the diversity of opinions within the coalition government and the allowance for conscience votes, underlining the dynamics of political relationships.

SODELPA general-secretary Viliame Takayawa is also concerned, particularly noting the view that Rabuka has taken on the role of a national leader.

He confirmed that the party intends to communicate directly with the prime minister on Tuesday to raise this pressing issue.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Five weeks on from Christmas Eve, I think most of us are still a bit stunned at what has happened in Fiji.

A new government came to power in dramatic circumstances.

It took not one but two Sodelpa management board meetings to change it, with razor-thin margins.

• READ MORE: Other Richard Naidu articles on Fiji

The same drama extended into Parliament.

There was definitely a bump in the road when the military openly expressed concern about the speed of change.

But that was navigated smoothly.

One other thing stood on a razor-thin margin.

Nobody in Fiji should forget it.

‘Rule of law’
A little thing called “rule of law”.

In a Fiji Times column last week, I tried to capture the idea of this.

First, the idea that the law is more important than everyone, including the government.

But second, the idea that the law is more than just rules and regulations which restrict us.

Rule of law means also that the government is bound to respect ordinary people’s rights and freedoms.

That rule of law was seriously at risk under the FijiFirst government.

Things had gotten to the point where, using bullying and fear, unafraid of the courts or any other institution which might restrain it, the FijiFirst government just did what it wanted.

In its last year of power, the only restraint on FijiFirst was the fact that an election was coming.

Turned on opponents
Had it won that election, FijiFirst would have turned its guns on the only opponents it had left — the opposition political parties, the independent news media and the few non-government organisations that continued to criticise it.

Fiji would have fallen firmly into that growing group of countries now called “democratic dictatorships” — places which have elections and the other trappings of democracy, but which in truth severely restrict the democratic rights and freedoms of their people.

Four key officials holding important constitutional positions — the Chief Justice, the Commissioner of Police, the Commissioner of Corrections and the Supervisor of Elections — have been suspended inside of four weeks.

That tells us one of two things.

Either the new government is particularly vengeful.

Or there are complaints against these officials that date back to the FijiFirst party’s time in power and which are only now coming to light.

After all, they’ve hardly had time to offend us under the new government.

And if these are in fact complaints about things which happened long ago, we must ask — why were they not actioned under the FijiFirst government?

No one dared complain
Or was fear of the government so pervasive that no one dared to complain against these officials — and the complaints are only being made now?

We need to know about these complaints.

Yes, each of these officials is innocent until proven otherwise.

But they are public officials, occupying some of the most powerful and critical positions in the country.

The decisions they make concern our most basic rights and freedoms — whether or not we spend a night in a cell, whether (and when) we will get a ruling on our employment dispute, or whether we are able to vote.

So we, the public, have a right to know what they are accused of.

What has changed?

The overwhelming sentiment for most of us — at least those around me — is a new sense of freedom.

Doesn’t change things
For many of us, that does not really change things from day to day.

Not everyone has the compelling urge to air their opinions on everything (in newspaper columns or elsewhere).

But it is simply the fact that if you want to rant about something on Facebook, you’re not worrying about what the government will think.

Most of us, day to day, are not worrying about whether we will be unfairly held for 48 hours in a jail cell.

Yet only two years ago in the covid crisis, the police were doing that to hundreds of people.

We are not worrying about whether we will be arrested for saying something which will “cause public alarm”.

Yet, every time an NGO or opposition political party leader issued a public statement in the last 10 years, this was a constant worry.

But much of the real damage done was at the next level down — the level where ordinary people like us want to get things done.

This week I met a small group of distinguished doctors.

Climate of fear
I heard with some amazement about the climate of fear which predominated in the Ministry of Health.

Criticism was not permitted.

In November last year, the permanent Secretary for Health publicly told politicians to “leave the Health Ministry alone”.

Nobody, he said, should talk about it.

Nobody should “undermine” it — because it was on the cusp of great things.

One senior medical specialist who famously criticised the state of our hospitals in The Fiji Times was immediately banned from entering them.

This was hardly a hardship — he was only volunteering his skills for free.

But what about all the patients who he was looking after?

He recounted to me, with some wonder the bureaucratic memo-writing process that is now being followed to bring him back.

Cash and volunteers
The International Women’s Association has cash and volunteers ready to improve women’s and children’s health at CWM Hospital.

We are talking about basic things, like hot water and decrepit bathrooms.

How do you run hospital wards without hot water?

IWA’s mistake was to make these deficiencies public on social media.

So the Health Ministry stopped talking to IWA.

Only with the change of government is IWA allowed to openly communicate with the Ministry of Health about what it wants to do — instead of whispers to officials on their gmail accounts.

For years, I have marvelled at the stupidity of the edicts issued from Ministry of Education headquarters.

Schools may not fund-raise without permission.

Schools may not invite speakers to their school assemblies without permission.

Schools may not run extracurricular classes for students without their permission.

‘In name of equality’
The policy seems to be “in the name of equality, we must all be equally dumbed down”.

As the Education Ministry pursued the government’s mad obsession with our “secular state”, schools owned by religious bodies cannot choose their own school heads, even if they pay for them and save the government money.

Education and health are critical issues for all of us.

The government can’t deliver everything.

Governments by nature are unwieldy, bureaucratic and slow (sometimes for good reason, because they have to carefully manage public funds and follow other laws).

So people have to get involved.

Get involved

We also have to get involved on a wide swathe of other issues such as poverty, domestic violence, drug abuse, crime and economic opportunities.

Criticism not welcome
These are all things which, for the past 15 years, we were told, the government had under control — like “never before”.

Our input — and certainly our criticism — were not welcome.

Let’s be clear about our new government.

We might be glad that it’s there.

And we should never take for granted the rights and freedoms it has restored to us and the refreshing new attitude it brings after 15 years.

But soon the honeymoon will end, the shine will come off and we will all have to get down to the work (which never ends) of solving our deep social and economic problems.

The expectations on the new government are huge.

Everybody wants every problem to be solved and every complaint to be answered.

We want every crook who has received an unfair benefit to be (as we now always seem to say) “taken to task”.

Same huge debt
The new government has the same huge debt, the same shortage of cash and the same lack of resources the old government did.

It can move some money around and change some priorities — but it can never solve every problem.

But a government that is prepared to tolerate criticism has at least one advantage over one that is not.

It can hear from real people about where the real problems are.

That’s why freedom of expression is not just a nice thing to have.

It’s actually important to tell us what is going on.

This government, like the old one, will gradually become more complacent and unresponsive as it becomes burdened with the ordinary business of administration.

And that is why every democracy — at least every real one — prizes freedom.

Freedom to march
Freedom for people to criticise, to march in the street, to take the government to court, without being punished for it.

These are some of the tools we use to hold the government to account, to remind the politicians that it is about us, not them, and to embarrass the politicians into action.

But just as important is the responsibility on us not just to talk — but also to act.

Our new freedom also means freedom to get involved.

What are the things that are important to us?

Is it health?

Education?

Child poverty?

Prison reform?

Our local environment?

So what will we do?

Don’t take it for granted
We don’t need to be part of some official committee or NGO to fight for the things that are important to us.

We don’t need the government’s permission to hold a public forum to talk about problems and solutions.

After 15 years we need to be able to say to our leaders: “We’re in charge here. This is what we want. You work for us.”

They won’t always listen — but that’s what freedom is.

It was a close-run thing on Christmas Eve — but freedom is what we got.

So let’s not take it for granted.

Let’s use it.

Richard Naidu is a Suva lawyer who is fairly free with his opinions. The views in this article are not necessarily the views of The Fiji Times. Republished with permission.

New Zealand-based Fijian academic Professor Steven Ratuva says that if the coalition government is strong, resilient and lasts, “this will reflect well as a future model for coalitions in Fiji”.

“It’s a learning process for a new government and a new democracy and we expect teething problems in the beginning and hopefully we settle down quickly and move on,” said the director of the University of Canterbury’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies.

However, he said that if it collapses, it would “signal a rather dark future of political instability for the country”.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji politics reports

Professor Ratuva said failure would “send out a negative message to investors, tourists and the rest of the world”.

“Thus it is imperative to make sure that the coalition works and for this the politicians need to be politically smart, strategic, humble and empathetic in their dealings and approaches with each other for the sake of the country, beyond the narrow political party agenda,” he said.

Professor Ratuva was referring to recent claims by Sodelpa general secretary Lenaitasi Duru that senior party members were unhappy with the lack of Sodelpa appointees to government statutory boards by the coalition government.

However, Sodelpa leader Viliame Gavoka said the party remained committed to the deal it struck with the People’s Alliance (PA) and National Federation Party (NFP) that resulted in the formation of the coalition Government.

‘Vast majority’ in support
He said the “vast majority” of the Fijian people wanted the coalition government to prevail.

Professor Ratuva said Sodelpa would need to innovatively address its internal issues as a party while ensuring that the coalition government worked for the sake of the country.

“Fiji’s current coalition experiment has great implications for the future of Fiji’s democracy because governments in the foreseeable future under our constitutionally-prescribed proportional representation (PR) system will most likely be in the form of coalitions,” he said.

He said a large number of countries which used the PR system had coalition governments.

“Thus we have to make sure that this coalition works by being strategic and smart about having a watertight agreement between the coalition partners as well as making everyone happy through give and take compromises.

“This is challenging, especially when you still have fractures and differences within Sodelpa, an important partner.

Need for innovation
“Sodelpa will need to innovatively address its internal issues as a party while ensuring that the coalition works for the sake of the country.”

The PR system was introduced by the Bainimarama-led regime which overthrew the democratically elected Laisenia Qarase government in December 2006.

The 51 members of Parliament after the 2014 General Election were elected from a single nationwide constituency by open list proportional representation with an electoral threshold of five percent.

The seats were allocated using the d’Hondt method.

Felix Chaudhary is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

By John Pulu, Tagata Pasifika presenter/reporter/director

It’s been a busy start for the newly elected leader of Fiji, Sitiveni Rabuka.

And while he’s only held the role for a little over a month, walking into the Prime Minister’s office felt familiar for the leader of the People’s Alliance (PA) party.

“The office dynamics are still the same,” he says.

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“It was just like going back to an old car or an old bicycle that you have driven before or ridden before.

“The people are new…[there’s] possible generational difficulties and views but I have not encountered any since the month I came into the office.”

However, his journey into office was not an easy one. After the initial tally of votes at last years’ December election, neither Rabuka nor his predecessor Voreqe Bainimarama had gained a comfortable majority to take Parliament.

Sodelpa (Social Democratic Liberal Party) became the kingmakers, voting to form a coalition with the PA, and they were joined by the National Federation Party (NFP).

Bainimarama out of office
For the first time since 2014, Bainimarama was out of office. Rabuka says they have not spoken since the election.

“There has been no communication since the outcome,” he says.

“It was something I tried to encourage when I was in the opposition and opposition leader, for across-the-floor discussions on matters that affect the nation.

“We grew up in the same profession…we are friends,” Rabuka insists.

However, there’s plenty else to keep Rabuka busy at this time.

The coalition trinity means more cooks in the kitchen, but Rabuka is confident that they can work together to lead Fiji.

“I worked with the National Federation Party in 1999. Sodelpa was the party I helped to register,” he recalls.

‘Differences in past’
“There might have been differences in the past but we are still family and it’s only natural for us to come together and work together again.”

They’ve already enacted a number of changes including lifting a ban on a number of Fijians who were exiled by the previous government.

“It’s interesting that many of those returning thought they were on a blacklist,” Rabuka muses.

“When we asked Immigration, Immigration [said] ‘there is no such thing as a blacklist, or anyone being prohibited from coming back’.

“They all came back and they were very happy. But it also reflected the freedom in the atmosphere.”

And speaking of freedom, investigations into former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum have reportedly been suspended.

Under investigation
According to FBC News, Sayed-Khaiyum was under investigation for allegedly inciting communal antagonism.

Rabuka says Sayed-Khaiyum is a person of interest, but isn’t yet subjected to any prosecution processes at this time.

“But if it develops from there, there might be restrictions on his movement – particularly out of Fiji.”

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air. Republished from Tagata Pasifika with permission.

The highly anticipated 2022 election last month was a very close, emotionally charged and highly controversial affair.

All that is behind us now and it is time to reflect on it critically and learn some important lessons as we welcome the dawn of 2023.

Despite the Supervisor of Elections’ prediction of a low percentage turnout of around the 50s, the actual turnout of 68.29 percent was surprisingly reasonable given the inconvenient December 14 date and other restrictions such as married women being required to change their names to the birth certificate ones, voting restrictions to one polling station and other legislative and logistical issues.

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The postal ballot votes had the highest turnout rate of 75.92 per cent and the others in descending order were: Northern Division (73.88 per cent); Eastern Division (69.98 per cent); Western Division (68.82 per cent); and Central Division (65.6 per cent).

This may sound ridiculous but it all came down to 658 voters, the equivalent of 0.14 percent of the votes, which enabled Sodelpa to stay above the 5 percent threshold.

It was this small number of voters who made the difference by giving Sodelpa the ultimate power broker position which enabled the People’s Alliance Party (PA)-National Federation Party (NFP) coalition to edge out the FijiFirst party (FFP) by a very slim margin after hours of horse trading followed by two rounds of voting.

However, this is what the voting calculus is all about — every vote counts and even one vote can make a substantial difference.

This is even more so in our Proportional Representation (PR) system, which was originally meant to encourage small parties to gain votes and be competitive against the dominant ones when it was first conceived in Europe in the early 1900s.

Theoretically, the idea is to shift the centre of power gravity from dominant parties to diverse groups to ensure that representation was more dispersed and democratic.

Thus, most countries with PR systems (there are different variants) have coalition governments.

New Zealand, which has two electoral systems merged into one (Mixed Member Proportional or MMP), consisting of the PR and First-Past-the-Post (FPP), has a history of coalitions since the PR component was introduced.

Other countries with coalition governments
Other countries which use the PR system are Israel, Columbia, Finland, Latvia, Sweden, Nepal and Netherlands, to name a few, and they all have coalition governments.

But why didn’t this coalition electoral outcome happen in Fiji during the first two elections in 2014 and 2018 although these were held under the PR system?

The reason is because the FFP was able to effectively deploy what political scientists refer to as the “coattail effect” — the tactic of using a popular political leader to attract votes.

So in this case, statistics show that there has been a direct correlation between coattail votes for Voreqe Bainimarama, the FFP leader, and the electoral fortunes of the FFP.

For instance, Bainimarama was able to attract 40.79 percent of the total votes during the 2014 election and this enabled FFP to secure around 59.17 percent of the total national votes. Bainimarama’s votes went down to 36.92 percent during the 2018 election and this reduced the FFP voting proportion by 9.12 percent to 50.02 percent.

The decline in Bainimarama’s votes to 29.08 percent during the 2022 election also reduced the FFP’s votes to 42.55 percent, well below the 50 plus 1 mark needed by the party to remain in power.

The total decline of 11.71 percent of Bainimarama’s votes and 16.62 percent of the FFP votes between 2014 and 2022 is a worrying sign and if the trend continues, they may be hitting the 30 percent mark at the time of the 2026 election.

By and large, the swing of votes away from FFP was around 10 percent or so, with a shifting margin of around 3 to 4 percent.

The long Bainimarama coattail has slowly withered away over time.

Before the election I warned in a Fiji Times interview early in 2022 that given the diminishing trend of the FFP electoral support, together with other data, the party would be lucky to survive the 2022 election and thus would need a coalition partner.

I also said that the PA, NFP, Sodelpa and other parties would need to form a national coalition to be able to rule.

The writing was on the wall and it appeared that the FFP was going to be victim of the PR electoral system they introduced in an ironically Frankensteinian way.

‘Wasted votes’ and weakness of the PR system
The results of the 2022 election shows that the power gravity has shifted significantly and in future we are going to see governments in Fiji formed on the basis of coalitions and thus elections will need to be fought on the basis of party partnership.

This means that smaller parties, which have no hope of getting over the 5 percent threshold will need to make critical assessments and the only survival option is to join bigger parties which have more chances of winning.

Herein lies one of the weaknesses of our version of the PR system where the votes by the smaller parties, which cannot get over the 5 percent threshold, are considered “wasted”.

This is in contrast to the Alternative Voting (AV) system under the 1997 Fiji Constitution, which provided for losing votes to be recycled and used by other parties based on preferential listing. In the 2022 election, 35,755 votes were “wasted”, which equated to 4.81 percent of the total votes.

By Fiji standard, this was a relatively large number indeed.

However, the idea of “wasted votes” is a contentious one because, while from an electoral calculus point of view, these votes may serve no purpose and are deemed useless, from a political rights perspective, the votes represent people’s inalienable moral and democratic rights to make political choices, whatever the outcome, and thus must be respected and not condemned as wasted.

The new era of transformation
The small margin of 29 to 26 seats and indeed the intriguing 28-27 voting in Parliament should be reason for the Coalition government to be on its toes and not be complacent about the sustainability of the three-party partnership.

They must try as much as possible to maintain a united synergy through a win-win power sharing arrangement.

They have started this so far with the co-deputy prime ministership and portfolio sharing and this needs to deepen to other areas so that it is not seen as a marriage of convenience but a genuine attempt at nation building and transformation.

To keep their momentum going and mobilise more support and legitimacy, they need to use the diverse expertise and wide range of professional skills at their disposal to bring about meaningful, consultative, transparent and transformative policy changes for the country.

Part of the process will be to reverse some of the FFP’s fear-mongering, vindictive, controlling and authoritarian style of policymaking and leadership, which have left many victims strewn across our national landscape and which weakened support for the FFP.

While there are still flames of anger and vengeance burning in some people’s hearts as a result of victimisation by the previous regime, it is imperative now to listen to Nelson Mandela’s advice after he was released from jail — allow the mind to rule over emotions and move on with dignity.

We must break the cycle of political vengeance and vindictiveness, which became part of our political culture since 2006 and as prominent lawyers Imrana Jalal and Graham Leung have advised, it is important to ensure that changes are within the law and not driven by destructive emotions, or else we will be following the same path as the previous regime.

These will take a high degree of levelheadedness and moral restraint, qualities already displayed by the coalition leadership so far.

For the FFP, it is time to go back to the drawing board, rethink about their overreliance on coattail approach, re-strategise and reflect on why voters are deserting them.

They will no doubt be sharpening their daggers to get inside the coalition armour and target the weak links and vulnerable spots.

They will try all the tricks in the book to make the coalition partnership as shortlived as possible through destabilisation strategies and vote poaching by winning over an extra Sodelpa vote to add to the single mysterious vote, which went FFP way during the parliamentary vote for the Speaker and PM.

Sodelpa may need to warn the person concerned and if the betrayal does not stop after the next round of parliamentary vote then they may need to invoke Section 63(h) of the Constitution, which specifies that a parliamentarian can lose his or her seat if the person’s vote is “contrary to any direction issued by the political party…”

This will then open the door for Ro Temumu Kepa, who is next on the SODELPA party list, to take the vacant seat and help stabilise the coalition’s parliamentary position a bit more.

Some electoral lessons for the future
The intense political horse-trading, high pressure power manoeuvring and stressful competition for coalition partnership in the hours after the election has taught us a few lessons.

Firstly, political parties should now start thinking about forging partnerships because future elections can only be won through coalition.

PAP and NFP made a great move by getting into a coalition early and this worked out well for them.

The coalition government now has a head start.

Secondly, political parties should learn to be humble, not burn their bridges when they part with their old comrades nor should they feel super and invincible by trying to do things on their own. Old grievances can come back to haunt you if they are not addressed early

Thirdly, small parties need to pay attention to the electoral calculus and engage with parties, which have potential to propel them above the 5 percent threshold or join together as small parties to form larger political groupings before the election.

Fourth, voters will need to be smart and strategic about their votes to ensure that they are not wasted.

These “wasted” votes do make a difference in the end when the results are tallied.

Fifthly, given the need for partnerships, especially when margins are narrow, forging positive relationship and goodwill with other political parties early before elections can be rewarding political capital while vindictiveness and ill will can be destructive and regrettable political liabilities.

There is still time — about 48 months away before the next election.

Steven Ratuva is distinguished professor and pro-vice chancellor Pacific at the University of Canterbury and chair of the International Political Science Association Research Committee on climate security and planetary politics. This article was first published in The Fiji Times and is republished with permission.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says he is the prime minister for the whole of Fiji and all of its people.

In an interview with Fijivillage News, Rabuka said he would like everybody to have a happy New Year and not worry too much about the changes that they think this new government would bring in.

He said the biggest change was that they could have a “happy new year”.

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Rabuka said the legacy of his previous leadership was his ability to work with opposition parties to formulate the 1997 constitution.

He added that this time he would like to continue that effort to work across the floor of Parliament and across the political divide in Fiji.

Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s interview with Fijivillage News.

The multicultural makeup of Fiji’s 903,000 population is about 65 percent iTaukei Fijians, 30 percent Indo-Fijians, and 5 percent “others” including those of other Pacific Islander ethnicities and Europeans.

‘Citizens’ assembly’ plan
FBC News reports that Rabuka announced in his national address that a “citizens’ assembly” would be convened for consultations on a coalition manifesto review.

Rabuka said this would involve Fijians from all walks of life to add to the manifesto and vision statements of the ruling People’s Alliance, National Federation Party, and the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) coalition.

He said the assembly would seek ideas and concepts from delegates to complement the government’s plans for building a better, more prosperous, and happier nation.

Rabuka said the coalition government intended to establish specialist reviews in four key areas:

“The constitution and legal reform, the economy, defence, and national security and a forensic examination of the spending of the FijiFirst government.

“Each review team will include people with expert knowledge. The teams will report to the appropriate cabinet member, Of course, a looming issue is the state of Fiji’s public finances.

“The government debt may be now above $10 billion.”

The citizen’s assembly is part of the coalition government’s plan for the first 100 days.

Promise of ‘united Fiji’
RNZ Pacific reports that Rabuka’s inaugural address to the nation was delivered to the people of Fiji via the state’s social media channels.

Rabuka, the instigator of two military coups in 1987, has assumed the role of head of government for the second time in his political career, after being prime minister between 1992 and 1999.

Fijian voters voted out Voreqe Bainimarama’s FijiFirst after two terms in power, signalling their appetite for change. He was also a coup leader, in 2006.

Rabuka’s message to his fellow citizens was one promising a better and united Fiji for all.

“Our country is experiencing a great and joyful awakening,” he said.

“It gladdens my heart to be a part of it. And I am reminded of the heavy responsibilities I now bear.”

Apart from being prime minister, Rabuka is also responsible for foreign affairs, climate change, environment, civil service, information and public enterprises, and leads a cabinet made up of 19 ministers, as well as 10 assistant ministers.

He accepts that his cabinet is “larger than I initially planned.”

Parliamentarian pay cuts
“Some of you [Fijian people] will be concerned about the cost,” he said.

But he offered his assurance to the people that he would take the necessary actions to cut costs, beginning with cuts to parliamentarians’ paycheques.

“In a democracy, the people are in charge,” Rabuka said.

“Elected representatives like me, and my parliamentary colleagues, do not lord it over you. We are your servants. We are here to listen to your concerns and respect your views.”

In his speech he set out the direction the Rabuka’s People’s Alliance-National Federation Party-Social Democratic Liberal Party coalition government will be headed.

Naveel Krishant is a Fijivillage News reporter. This article drawing on Fijivillage, FBC News and RNZ Pacific is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

“Merry Christmas Fiji!”

This was the message to Fiji from kingmakers Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) management board member and MP Tanya Waqanika after their meeting in Suva ended this evening.

Asked whether her Christmas wishes meant good news for the people of Fiji, she responded: “Free at last.”

Waqanika was one of the 26 management board members who participated in the secret ballot — which voted in favour of a coalition with the People’s Alliance and the National Federation Party, the second time in barely 72 hours that the board backed the coalition.

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This vote confirms the end of 16 years of domination of Fiji politics by 2006 coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama — half as the military leader and the rest as an elected FijiFirst party prime minister.

It will usher in a new era with coalition rule and 1987 coup leader and former prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka heading the government.

A secret ballot held at the meeting at the Southern Cross Hotel resulted in 13 votes for the PAP-NFP coalition and 12 for the FijiFirst Party.

‘Anomalies’ forced new vote
In Tuesday’s vote, the numbers were 16-14 in favour of the People’s Alliance-led coalition. However the validity of that vote was challenged over claimed “anomalies”.

Party vice-president Anare Jale said the next step now was to work on a coalition agreement.

He said that agreement would detail all the information and work that would be taking place today and during the holidays.

“Hopefully, something will be concluded and signed on Wednesday next week,” Jale said at the press conference after the day-long Sodelpa meeting.

Timoci Vula is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

• Parliament will hold a vote for the new prime minister, expected to Sitiveni Rabuka, on Saturday.

#Proclamation summoning #Parliament of the Republic of #Fiji
Click https://t.co/64m3AOG68v#FijiNews #TeamParliament pic.twitter.com/Htkc7AsGrD

— Fijian Parliament (@fijiparliament) December 23, 2022

Not out of the woods yet
RNZ Pacific reports that Fijians will have to hold back their celebration until a final decision is made on the floor of Parliament, where MPs will cast their votes for the next prime minister and speaker of the house in a secret ballot.

Soldepa vice-president and head of negotiations Anare Jale told media urgency was the utmost priority for the party.

“What we are doing today is to issue directives to our three members of Parliament on how they are going to vote for the position of speaker and also prime minister,” Jale said.

“We know Parliament will convene shortly, so, more the reasons these directive needs to be in the hands of the members of Sodelpa’s MP in Parliament.”

He added that a coalition agreement was to follow in the next few days … “Hopefully, something can be concluded and signed by Wednesday.”

A complaint lodged against FijiFirst general secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum for alleged incitement at the Totogo Police station yesterday has been handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

Police Commissioner Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho said this today in a statement.

Yesterday, People’s Alliance general secretary and registered officer Sakiasi Ditoka lodged a police complaint against Sayed-Khaiyum, alleging comments he made during a news conference this week incited racial hatred, violence and communal antagonism.

• READ MORE:  Tight Fiji police security for new Sodelpa party board meeting
• ‘Writing on the wall’ for authoritarian FijiFirst government, says Ratuva
• ‘PM at first sitting’ — Fiji’s former elections chief explains how
• Fijian Aucklanders see promise and hope with Rabuka as likely PM
• ‘Nothing to concede’, says FijiFirst in wake of contested election
• Reports of ‘anomalies’ in Sodelpa vote to go with opposition parties
• New chapter for Fiji — Rabuka to lead coalition
• Other Fiji elections reports

Commissioner Qiliho said the complaint had been handed over to the CID and that investigators were conducting their analysis before the next course of action was decided.

Sodelpa meeting
Meanwhile, Talebula Kate reports that members of the media covering the Sodelpa management board meeting at the Southern Cross Hotel in Suva have now been allowed near the hotel but remain outside the premises on the public walkway.

When the final election results were announced around 4pm on Sunday, many Fijians, at home and around the world, breathed a collective sigh of relief: the government of coup-maker Voreqe Bainimarama looked like it had finally been defeated at the ballot box.

Could it be that the militarised political culture, pervasive in Fiji since the 1987 coups, was finally being effectively challenged — peacefully?

Bainimarama’s FijiFirst Party (FFP) collected 42.55 percent of votes, well short of the majority needed to return to power. The closest rival, the People’s Alliance Party (PAP), led by 1987 coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka, won 35.82 percent, followed by the National Federation Party (NFP) on 8.89 pecent and the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) with 5.14 percent of the votes.

• READ MORE: As Fiji prepares to vote, democracy could already be the loser
• Fiji’s other crisis: away from the covid emergency, political dissent can still get you arrested
• Two past coup leaders face off in Fiji election as Australia sharpens its focus on Pacific

Total voter turnout was 68.28 percent, less than the 71.92 percent at the 2018 election. With the Unity Fiji and Fiji Labour parties not reaching the required 5 percent threshold to gain seats under Fiji’s proportional representation system, the maths indicated a dead heat –– and some anxious coalition horsetrading.

The vote shares mean FFP will have 26 seats in the new 55-seat Parliament, the PAP 21, NFP 5 and SODELPA 3. The PAP and NFP had already signed a pre-election agreement to form a coalition, meaning they are tied with the FFP on 26 seats.

Led by Viliame Gavoka, Sodelpa was suddenly thrust into the role of kingmaker. Given its fraught history with both FFP and PAP, the stage was set for some hard bargaining on all sides this week.

Family ties
The PAP, in fact, is a breakaway faction of Sodelpa. The divorce was bitter and littered with bruised souls. A faction within Sodelpa wanted nothing to do with Rabuka and the PAP.

On the other hand, Sodelpa’s relationship with FijiFirst has been equally strained. The founding leader of Sodelpa, the late prime minister Laiseni Qarase, was deposed, arrested and jailed following Bainimarama’s 2006 coup.

But there is a personal link between Sodelpa and the FFP, whose secretary general (as well as Attorney-General and Minister for the Economy in the previous government) is Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. An Indo-Fijian Muslim, Sayed-Khaiyum is the son-in-law of Sodelpa leader Viliame Gavoka, an indigenous Fijian (Taukei).

While this multiracial connection may have its political advantages, the reality is that many in Sodelpa vehemently oppose Sayed-Khaiyum for what they view as his imposing and arrogant style.

Return of Rabuka
There were early indications that Sodelpa might go with the PAP and NFP partnership to form a grand coalition, and that played out as by Friday the party’s management board had carried out two votes, both giving a very narrow margin in support of the grand coalition (16-14 then 13-12). Ideologically and politically, Sodelpa and PAP share the same basic vision and strategies regarding indigenous Fijian issues — after all, they were once the same party.

#LATEST Fiji’s kingmaker, Sodelpa has announced it’s joining Sitiveni Rabuka-led People’s Alliance-National Federation (PA-NFP) coalition to form the next government.https://t.co/57wLytvuHf

— RNZ Pacific (@RNZPacific) December 23, 2022

Gavoka and Rabuka are similar in various ways. They both have ethno-nationalist tendencies and embrace fundamentalist evangelical Christian doctrines. Gavoka has advocated setting up a Fijian embassy in Jerusalem, and Rabuka has been known as an admirer of Israel since he was commander of Fijian peacekeepers in the Middle East in the 1980s.

Furthermore, Sodelpa has been under pressure from its international and local branches (which fund the party) not to entertain any FFP coalition proposals. The message coming through from supporters is that their votes for Sodelpa were also votes against FFP.

There have also been fears that an alliance between Sodelpa and FFP could provoke old grievances and escalate into wider political instability.

Lastly, “non-negotiables” laid down by Sodelpa include enacting policies that promote indigenous Fijian interests (including the reinstatement of the Great Council of Chiefs (which Bainimarama abolished), forgiving scholarship debt and setting up a Fiji embassy in Jerusalem.

These are similar to the PAP policies in the party manifesto but quite different from the FFP positions.

Culture change
If the election sees FijiFirst finally leave power, there is the potential for democratic progress. One of the major challenges for an incoming new government will be reform of the country’s civil service, judiciary, education and health systems, and the economy in general.

Over the years, Fiji society has been configured in ways that suit the narrow ideological interests and centralised control of the FFP. Security, public order and media laws have been used to undermine democratic debate, free expression and public engagement.

Democratising the institutions of state and making them more relevant will be a huge task. It will require significant financial, political and intellectual resources. It also has ramifications in the wider Pacific region, given Fiji’s role as an economic, communications and political hub.

Many Pacific leaders, including in Australia and New Zealand, have been unhappy with Fiji under the Bainimarama-Kaiyum axis. Actions such as the government’s refusal to release more than FJ$80 million in funding for the University of the South Pacific — creating a major crisis at the regional institution — only reinforce such perceptions.

Tense times, sense of Déjà vu in Fiji. As I wrote in ‘Anticipation & Apprehension in Fiji’s 2022 Election’ historically elections are riskiest period in Fiji. Anticipation of election turning into Apprehension about its outcome. The backgrounder is here:https://t.co/g3cxFhHyxo https://t.co/rivuVf1fGA

— Dr Shailendra B Singh (@ShailendraBSing) December 22, 2022

This time, Rabuka and Bainimarama — both former military leaders and coup makers — have used the democratic electoral system rather than guns and force to try to win to power. But behind them sits a culture of command and control that will be difficult to dislodge.

This is subtly woven into various aspects of the 2013 Constitution, such as the role of the military as the nation’s constitutional security watchdog. But there is growing confidence that the chances of another military coup following this election are virtually nil.

Fiji’s civil service and operations of state have incorporated micromanagement, authoritarianism and coercion as part of the institutional culture. The test will be to ensure that a coalition of parties can rule together in a way that expands political participation and enhances democracy.

Dr Steven Ratuva is director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Tight police security will greet the Sodelpa management board meeting in Suva tomorrow when it will again decide the political party it will form a coalition with to run the Fiji government for the next four years.

The decision came after hours of deliberation today by the Sodelpa working committee — headed by party acting deputy leader Aseri Radrodro — where members discussed the “anomalies” in the previous board meeting held at the Yue Lai Hotel in Suva on Tuesday.

That meeting of the 30-member board decided by a margin of 16-14 to form a coalition with the People’s Alliance party of former prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the National Federation Party. This would give the coalition a slender majority of 29 in the 55-seat Parliament.

• READ MORE:  ‘Writing on the wall’ for authoritarian FijiFirst government, says Ratuva
• ‘PM at first sitting’ – Fiji’s former elections chief explains how
• Fijian Aucklanders see promise and hope with Rabuka as likely PM
• ‘Nothing to concede’, says FijiFirst in wake of contested election
• Reports of ‘anomalies’ in Sodelpa vote to go with opposition parties
• New chapter for Fiji – Rabuka to lead coalition
• Other Fiji elections reports

However, some issues were identified by the Registrar of Political Parties, Mohammed Saneem, after that Sodelpa board meeting.

Speaking to news media today, Radrodro said the agenda of the new meeting was to decide which party they would join.

The meeting will be held at the Southern Cross Hotel in Suva at 10am tomorrow.

Sodelpa’s negotiating team will be headed by party vice-president Anare Jale.

Arieta Vakasukawaqa is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

Military forces deployed
Meanwhile, RNZ Pacific reports that Fiji’s military forces are being deployed to maintain security and stability in the country following reports of threats made against minority groups.

In a statement yesterday afternoon, Fiji Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho announced the move, calling it a joint decision with the commander of Fiji’s military forces, Major-General Jone Kalouniwai.

As of 3pm Fiji time, RNZ Pacific’s correspondent in Suva, Kelvin Anthony, reported there were no visible signs of increased police or military presence.

Commissioner Qiliho said the decision was based on official reports and intelligence received of planned civil unrest and the targeting of minority groups.

The military deployment comes less than 24 hours after the ruling FijiFirst party made its first public statement since the December 14 election.

Party secretary-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said they respected the outcome of the election, but did not recognise the validity of the opposition coalition and would not concede defeat.

Sayed-Khaiyum said under the country’s constitution, the FijiFirst government remained in place and Voreqe Bainimarama was still the prime minister of Fiji.

He said this could only be changed once the vote for prime minister was held on the floor of Parliament.

Under section 131 (2) of Fiji’s constitution, the military has the “overall responsibility” to ensure the security, defence and wellbeing of Fiji and all Fijians.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

The incumbent FijiFirst government’s appeal was beginning to wane and voters deserted the party “because of what they saw as their authoritarian, non-inclusive, controlling and vindictive style of leadership”, says a leading Fijian academic with an international reputation.

Professor Steven Ratuva, director of the New Zealand-based University of Canterbury’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, said: “The writing was on the wall for the Voreqe Bainimarama-led party for some time”.

“People could hardly openly complain and criticise the government as one would expect in a democracy, fearing the consequences,” he said.

• READ MORE:  ‘PM at first sitting’ – Fiji’s former elections chief explains how
• Fijian Aucklanders see promise and hope with Rabuka as likely PM
• ‘Nothing to concede’, says FijiFirst in wake of contested election
• Reports of ‘anomalies’ in Sodelpa vote to go with opposition parties
• New chapter for Fiji – Rabuka to lead coalition
• Other Fiji elections reports

A coalition of the People’s Alliance Party and National Federation Party with 26 seats combined with Sodelpa’s crucial three seats claims that it has a majority in the expanded 55-seat Parliament for Sitiveni Rabuka to lead as Prime Minister.

Referring to the internal issues erupting within the kingmaker Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa), Professor Ratuva said it was time to respect the wishes of voters rather than the “hunger for power” and grievances of individual political players.

He said the Sodelpa split which led to the formation of the People’s Alliance was unfortunate “with lots of bruised souls and egos who harboured very deep resentment and clamour for vengeance”.

The issue was a complex mixture of “traditional vanua politics, personality power struggle and liumuri (backstabbing)” that was now unashamedly being played out in public.

Former Supervisor of Elections Jon Apted says that the coalition formed by the  Social Democratic Liberal Party with the People’s Alliance/National Federation Party should be able to successfully elect a Prime Minister at the first sitting.

He said that with the 2022 General Election over and FFP tied with the PA/NFP coalition at 26 seats each and Sodelpa holding three critical seats, there were a number of steps to be taken in the process of forming the next government.

“Once the Electoral Commission formally conducts the allocation of seats, they will publicly declare the names of the candidates who have been elected,” he said.

• READ MORE:  Fijian Aucklanders see promise and hope with Rabuka as likely PM
• ‘Nothing to concede’, says FijiFirst in wake of contested election
• Reports of ‘anomalies’ in Sodelpa vote to go with opposition parties
• New chapter for Fiji – Rabuka to lead coalition
• Other Fiji elections reports

“They then forward those names to the Secretary-General to Parliament.

“They also endorse those names on the writ of election that was earlier issued to the Commission by the President and return the writ to the President.” Apted said under section 67 of the Constitution, the President must then call Parliament to meet within 14 days.

“This can be any date within the next two weeks.

“Under the Constitution, he needs to act on the advice of the current Prime Minister. The President has no power to act in his own judgment.”

Swearing in new members
Apted said under the Constitution where no party had won an outright majority of seats, the sitting PM and Cabinet remained in office until the first meeting of Parliament.

“At that first meeting, the SG must first swear in the new members who then elect the Speaker.

“The Speaker comes from outside Parliament. A candidate or candidates would be nominated by the members of the parties in Parliament. The Speaker must be elected by a simple majority of votes. Assuming that everyone turns up and is sworn in, that means that the new Speaker must have the support of at least 28 new MPs.”

Apted said once the Speaker was sworn in, he or she would preside over the selection in Parliament for who is to be the PM under section 93 of the Constitution.

“The Speaker first calls for nominations. If only one person is nominated and seconded, that person automatically becomes the PM. However, if there is more than one nominee, a vote must be taken.

“If a nominee gets more than 50 per cent of all the members of Parliament, then they will be PM. If no one gets more than 50 per cent, then a second vote must be held within 24 hours.

“The assumption is that lobbying will go on during this period.

“If after the second vote, someone has more than 50 per cent, he or she will be PM. If not, there has to be a third vote within 24 hours.”

Apted said if no one gets more than 50 per cent in the third vote, then the Speaker has to notify the President that Parliament is unable to elect a PM, and the President must within 24 hours dissolve Parliament and issue a new writ of election for a fresh election.

However, in reality with Sodelpa agreeing to form a coalition with the PAP/NFP coalition, that coalition should be able to successfully elect a PM at the first sitting, Apted said.

Felix Chaudhary is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

Many members of Auckland’s Fiji community say they are “delighted and relieved” by last week’s general election result.

Coup leader turned prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama seems set to lose his position after 16 years in office — eight years as dictator and the other half as elected prime minister.

An opposition coalition formed by the People’s Alliance, National Federation, and Sodelpa parties will replace FijiFirst as the country’s new government, led by another former coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka — now returning to the role as a democratically chosen leader.

• READ MORE:  Reports of ‘anomalies’ in Sodelpa vote to go with opposition parties
• New chapter for Fiji – Rabuka to lead coalition
• Other Fiji elections reports

Yesterday was a day of celebration for some members of the local community — some of whom migrated to New Zealand because of Bainimarama’s leadership.

“The [previous government] was hopeless, I’ll tell you what,” said the owner of an Auckland shop.

“All sorts of media freedom, union movements, all these things were taken away. I hope the new government can bring back that freedom.”

‘We need democracy’
The new government gave him hope for Fiji’s future, the shop owner said.

“We need democracy to take its course, and I think this is the time,” he said.

“[The coalition] will make a good Cabinet and they will have a better way of running the government, a government that listens to the people.”

But others were more sceptical. An owner of a Fiji restaurant said the coalition had a lot to prove.

“Let’s see what happens, there are big promises being made,” he said. “A three-member coalition, that’s worrying for us, who’s going to be making those big decisions?”

‘True democracy’ opportunity
University of Canterbury sociologist Professor Steven Ratuva said the new leadership had an opportunity to bring back true democracy.

“Although we’ve had democratic elections, the style of leadership hasn’t been very democratic.

“It’s a great opportunity to see whether it’s possible to reconfigure the governance process towards a more democratic system.”

The excitement within the community was palpable, Ratuva said.

“It’s very significant,” he said. “Bainimarama’s government has been around since the coup in 2006. It’s a [statement] against his style of governance, which has been seen to be authoritarian and vindictive.”

The new coalition, however, was in a precarious spot just hours earlier.

Only 16 of Sodelpa’s 30-member management board voted for the alliance, splitting the party down the middle.

Internal disagreements resurfaced within Sodelpa, less than 24 hours after it announced it was forming a coalition government.

“It was very, very close,” Dr Ratuva said. “Which means that the faction in Sodelpa that supported FijiFirst, they’re probably not finished yet, they’re probably thinking up something.”

Dr Ratuva said the election was not a done deal, and more would be seen in the coming days.

When the election was finalised, he said, the real work would begin.

“The new coalition will have to do a lot of reform, in terms of reimagining and reframing the new governance process in Fiji for the future,” he said.

“It’s a coalition of three parties, they will have to draw together all those intellectual, political, professional resources to rebuild from there.

“We’ll see what happens in a year, but there’s a lot of promise.”

Ardern in ‘wait-and-see’ approach
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was taking a wait-and-see approach over the Fiji election, but the foreign minister had already congratulated the new government.

Ardern said she would wait until “the dust settled” before contacting Rabuka.

When asked whether the result could cause civil unrest, Ardern said she was not concerned and that New Zealand’s role was simply to observe and support Fiji.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta sent a tweet congratulating Rabuka on forming a coalition.

New Zealand looked forward to “working together to continue strengthening our warm relationship”, Mahuta said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

The ruling FijiFirst party is refusing to concede the 2022 general election, saying it can only be called after the election of the prime minister on the floor of Parliament.

Its general secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that under the Fiji constitution the government was still in place and Voreqe Bainimarama remained the prime minister.

Sayed-Khaiyum — who is also caretaker Attorney-General — told local media the prime minister’s role and the power of the government would not change until the election of a new prime minister was held on the floor of Parliament.

• READ MORE:  Reports of ‘anomalies’ in Sodelpa vote to go with opposition parties
• New chapter for Fiji – Rabuka to lead coalition
• Other Fiji elections reports

Sayed-Khaiyum also questioned the validity of the newly announced opposition coalition between the People’s Alliance, National Federation Party and Sodelpa.

He said concerns raised by the resigned Sodelpa general secretary, Lenaitasi Duru claiming “anomalies” in the voting process, had to be considered.

Sayed-Khaiyum said he looked forward to resubmitting FijiFirst’s coalition proposal to the management board of the party should it see fit to sit again.

But he said the final say on who would become the next prime minister of Fiji would only be determined on the floor of Parliament.

Fiji’s president must call Parliament within 14 days of the writ of elections being returned, which took place in a ceremony on Monday at Government House.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

Internal disagreements have resurfaced within Sodelpa, Fiji’s kingmaking party, less than 24 hours after it announced it was forming a coalition government with the People’s Alliance and the National Federation Party.https://t.co/YzVPPsRwEb

— RNZ Pacific (@RNZPacific) December 21, 2022

Claims of irregularities in the vote to create a new coalition government formed in Fiji have emerged.

Internal disagreements have resurfaced within Sodelpa, Fiji’s kingmaking party, less than 24 hours after it announced it was forming a coalition government with the People’s Alliance and the National Federation Party.

The latest turn of events has resulted in the party’s general secretary Lenaitasi Duru tendering his resignation on Tuesday night to the party’s management board following his concerns about “anomalies” in the voting process to elect a coalition partner.

• READ MORE: New chapter for Fiji – Rabuka to lead coalition
• Other Fiji elections reports

Sodelpa’s 30-member board was split with 16 in favour of the new coalition and 14 in favour of teaming up with Fiji First.

Prior to stepping down Duru had written to Fiji’s president, Wiliame Katonivere, seeking deferment of the first Parliament sitting.

“This request is based on the Sodelpa constitutional anomalies of members that participated in the vote to determine our coalition partner to form government from December 2022,” Duru said in the letter.

He added: “Given the importance of this process in choosing our next government, we therefore wish to advise that the initial result taken by the board is null and void.”

According to local media reports Duru is still the general secretary of the party as his resignation will come into effect after 30 days.

RNZ Pacific has contacted Sodelpa for comment.

No Parliament sitting today
Meanwhile, the Parliament office has confirmed that there will be no sitting today, as they have not received any proclamation from the president.

The president must call Parliament within 14 days after the writ of elections is returned.

Speaking to RNZ Pacific last night, Sodelpa’s main negotiator, Anare Jale, said the coalition agreement signed by the three parties is a legally binding document.

Jale said the basis of the agreement is for the three Sodelpa MPs to vote along party lines in favour of People’s Alliance leader Sitiveni Rabuka to be Fiji’s next prime minister.

This means if any of the three candidates fail to do so, then according to the 2013 Fijian Constitution, they will lose their parliamentary seat.

“The coalition is solid. The party is solid. We have decided on a decision, and the provision of the Constitution is very clear. When the party decides on a decision to be taken by them in Parliament, they have to respect that.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister has endorsed the new government.

In a tweet, Nanai Mahuta offered her congratulations to PA-NFP-Sodelpa and Sitiveni Rabuka on forming a coalition to lead the people.

She also said she looks forward to working with the new government to continue strengthening the warm relationship.

Congratulations to PA-NFP-SODELPA/ Sitiveni Rabuka on forming a coalition to lead the people. looks forward to working together to continue strengthening our warm relationship #duavata #mahitahi #kotahitanga

— Nanaia Mahuta (@NanaiaMahuta) December 20, 2022

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

After 72 hours of negotiations ended yesterday, the Social Democratic Liberal Party finally chose the People’s Alliance party and National Federation Party as its coalition partners ending the 16 years of domination by 2006 coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama.

Speaking to the media outside Yue Lai Hotel in Suva last night, Sodelpa head of negotiations team and vice-president Anare Jale said it was not an easy decision to make.

The negotiations team from the ruling FijiFirst Party was led by its party leader and Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama. He was accompanied by FijiFirst general secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

• READ MORE: New chapter for Fiji – Rabuka to lead coalition
• Other Fiji elections reports

“The management board has been meeting for two hours today [Tuesday],” Jale said.

He said they made the decision following presentations from the FijiFirst Party, the People’s Alliance Party and National Federation Party.

“A secret ballot was conducted. There were about 30 members of the management board who voted.

14-16 split vote
“The decision was 14 voted for FijiFirst Party and 16 vote for the People’s Alliance Party.

“Sodelpa will form a coalition with the People’s Alliance Party and National Federation Party to form a new government.

“We have finally came to a decision and it has not been a very easy decision, it took us few days to decide on the way forward for the party, especially the choice of who we are going to form a coalition with to form the next government.

“It was a huge responsibility for Sodelpa and we are so grateful that the end has now come.”

He said the decision was a tough one.

“The decision was taken into account with presentations made to the negotiating team of Sodelpa which we have been receiving over the last three days.

“We analysed the presentations given, we went back to the management board to report to them.

Rabuka for PM
The negotiation team of the People’s Alliance Party was led by party leader Sitiveni Rabuka, who will become the new prime minister. Also a former coup leader, Rabuka was Fiji’s prime minister from 1992 to 1999.

Questions sent to FijiFirst party leader Voreqe Bainimarama and Sayed-Khaiyum remained unanswered when this edition went to press. RNZ Pacific also faced unanswered questions. The FijiFirst Facebook page has not been undated for four days.

The former Sodelpa leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa, said the negotiations were not easy.

Speaking at the news conference last night, she said the lengthy meeting was an indicator of how serious and crucial the meeting was.

“It has not been an easy 72 hours,” Ro Teimumu said.

“We’ve had three management board meetings but that is an indicator of how serious and how crucial and how important it was for us to make the right decision.

“We are factoring in the stability of our country, the way the people have asked us to look at the areas that we needed to look at in terms of where we were to vote today.

“We hope that the way ahead is going to be one that will bring good news to people in terms of the stability of our country, all the things that we’ve been mindful of and complaining about for the last 16 years.”

Ro Teimumu also took time to thank her party supporters.

“I would like to thank our Sodelpa supporters who came through and gave us three seats, which became very crucial in terms of determining the way ahead.

“We wish our parliamentarians especially the new coalition — that is the People’s Alliance Party, and the NFP and Sodelpa — we wish them all the best and we just ask you to keep them in your prayers.”

Rakesh Kumar is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

#FIJITIMESHEADLINES

Bula

The big one on the front page of The Fiji Times for Wednesday, December 21 is on politics.

When it mattered, the powers that be came together and voted for change!#TimesNews #TimesBiz #TimesSports #FijiNews https://t.co/5f0PZX6c3D

— The Fiji Times (@fijitimes) December 20, 2022

An official communication will be sent to Fiji’s President confirming the new People’s Alliance, National Federation Party and Sodelpa government is ready to lead under the new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka.

NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad said the leaders were pleased to give Fijians a Christmas present of a strong and united coalition government ready to respond to their call for change.

“People have chosen a new way, a new path, and a new government and we the coalition partners — now the People’s Alliance, the NFP and Sodelpa — promise the people of Fiji that a new era will be starting as the new government takes on the power in this country.”

• READ MORE: Other Fiji election reports

People’s Alliance leader Sitiveni Rabuka thanked Fijians, saying they had voted for change and the coalition had given them that.

He also thanked outgoing FijiFirst Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and his cabinet for running the affairs of the nation for the past 16 years.

“Losing the election is not the end. I lost in 1999 and I kept trying. I’ve been given the opportunity this time, once in 2018 and again this time and different party. Play your cards right. Lead your team well and work hard.”

Sixteen members of the Sodelpa management board voted in favour of PAP and NFP, while 14 voted for FijiFirst.

The Fijian people will need to still wait to find out who will lead the country for the next four years after the kingmaker Social Democratic Liberal Party’s board failed to agree to proposals put forward by the incumbent FijiFirst and the opposition People’s Alliance-National Federation Party after intense negotiations today.

Following almost four hours of politicking which started at 10.30am local time, party leader Viliame Gavoka emerged from the meeting to declare no deal had been made.

“Let me once again stress that we fully understand and appreciate the challenge that is with us at Sodelpa to decide how this country will be governed for the next four years,” an emotional Gavoka told the media in Suva.

• READ MORE: Sodelpa youth arm begs party to rule out coalition with ‘dictator’ Bainimarama
• The Fiji Times: Kingmakers and the big post-election reveal!
• Last shall be first … Fiji’s kingmaker party considering all options
• Fiji elections: Indigenous issues ‘paramount with us’, says Gavoka on coalition talks
• Fiji elections: End 16 years of nation’s ‘bullying, corrupt’ government, pleads Beddoes
• Fiji elections: Rabuka calls for calm after police interrogation
• Other Fiji election reports

“We fully understand the significance of this. We are committed to ensuring that our decision who governs this country will be done for the best interest of our people.”

Negotiations between Sodelpa and FijiFirst, the People’s Alliance and NFP began on Sunday evening and Gavoka confirmed his team met with both parties and listened to what they had to offer.

He said the Sodelpa board had gone through “in great detail” offers from both parties and had decided to continue negotiations.

“The negotiating team goes back to the parties concerned, [it will] relook at some aspects of the offer and bring it back to the management board on Wednesday at 2pm,” he said.

“Do another round of talks. That is what we have decided.”

‘Not fair’ on Fijians
But Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali said it was not fair that the Fijian people who went out and voted were now having to wait this long for a government to be formed.

Ali is calling for the political leaders to “come to their senses”.

“I hope that political parties come to an understanding for a peaceful Fiji where human rights are respected and where we don’t have such restrictive laws,” she said.

She said she hoped that the “kingmakers” would put the people first when making the final decision “and behaving like the religious society that we are where forgiveness and kindness are paramount”.

Chance for ‘real democracy’, says academic
University of Canterbury Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies director Professor Steven Ratuva has labelled it a “knife-edge election”.

Dr Ratuva said Fiji had seen a shift in power, but it still held a chance to bring back “real democracy” in the country.

He added all players understood the power conjured up by Sodelpa, and big bargains from both sides would be dangled before them.

The options on the table for Sodelpa are woven with political complexities. On one hand is Voreqe Bainimarama’s FijiFirst, which deposed the founding leader of Sodelpa – late Prime Minister Laiseni Qarase, who was arrested and jailed following the 2006 coup.

However, Dr Ratuva said an unexpected coalition between FijiFirst and Sodelpa would not be “impossible”.

“The history of Fiji is littered with such cases where opposing politicians got together, remember when [Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra] Chaudhry got together with Rabuka as prime minister in 1992,” he explained.

‘Nothing impossible’
“Nothing is impossible in Fiji and in politics generally”.

Dr Ratuva said desperation was in the air, and Sodelpa would be able to leverage on promises made on the campaign trail.

“FijiFirst will be desperate to give them what they want,” he said.

“Even the deputy prime minister’s position or even to speculate the prime minister’s position, but whether that will happen or not is another question because I doubt that Bainimarama would easily relinquish that position, which he has been holding for a long time.”

But whether the two parties are able to see eye-to-eye on policy remains in question.

Dr Ratuva said Sodelpa’s manifesto strongly counters the policies of the FijiFirst party, not only in this election but over the last two terms in parliament.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

The youth wing of Fiji’s Social Democratic Liberal Party (Soldelpa) are against any move by its board to form a coalition with the ruling FijiFirst post-election.

Speaking to media in Suva yesterday, Sodelpa leader Viliame Gavoka said the party had 14 days to consider its options.

“We are not in any hurry, we understand the importance of this, but we’re not going to rush. We are going to do this properly but with urgency,” he said.

• READ MORE:  The Fiji Times: Kingmakers and the big post-election reveal!
• Last shall be first … Fiji’s kingmaker party considering all options
• Fiji elections: Indigenous issues ‘paramount with us’, says Gavoka on coalition talks
• Fiji elections: End 16 years of nation’s ‘bullying, corrupt’ government, pleads Beddoes
• Fiji elections: Rabuka calls for calm after police interrogation
• Other Fiji election reports

RNZ Pacific has seen a copy of the letter in which the Sodelpa Youth Council expressed their “distaste” to the party’s main decision-making board for “agreeing to consider” Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s FijiFirst as a potential partner.

“We beg the executives to consider wisely and inclusively on the party’s move,” the letter states.

“The people are our source of strength and therefore their voice is what we shall recognise,” it adds.

It further states that although the party has differences with People’s Alliance leader Sitiveni Rabuka “he may be the only option we can take to work with” to put an end to “16 years of dictatorial leadership” under Bainimarama.

The youth arm believes the Sodelpa management’s decision to consider proposals from FijiFirst shows the “desperation and compromised approach” the party is willing to take to form a government.

Sodelpa’s management board — which is made up of over 40 members from 28 constituencies — is expected to meet today to make a decision.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

It’s the big day today! We will get to know the make-up of our Parliament. The results saw FijiFirst leading the vote count — but failing to gain a majority (26 seats) — followed by the People’s Alliance (21), the National Federation Party (5) and the Social Democratic Liberal Party (3).

Pundits were predicting Sodelpa could become ‘kingmakers” in the event of a tight finish, and based on them getting past the threshold!

Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem has not announced the total voter turnout, but he said yesterday this figure would be known today.

• READ MORE: Last shall be first … Fiji’s kingmaker party considering all options
• Fiji elections: Indigenous issues ‘paramount with us’, says Gavoka on coalition talks
• Fiji elections: End 16 years of nation’s ‘bullying, corrupt’ government, pleads Beddoes
• Fiji elections: Rabuka calls for calm after police interrogation
• Other Fiji election reports

The 353,247 figure he released on Election Day, he said, was from 1200 or so polling stations, not 1400. There can be no doubts about the interest now focused on the outcome.

It had been a fiery tussle leading up to the elections on December 14.

Campaigns inched out attacks that turned ugly at times, and some became personal. When it mattered, we were told of a low voter turnout. All that will now be cast aside as we await the final announcement.

Will there be an outright winner?

Or will there be a role for Sodelpa to play? Voters would be keenly following how the numbers add up.

The atmosphere has been supercharged, highly emotional, and driving through divisions as party followers cling onto hope.

There is great suspense and anxiety! It isn’t a pleasant scenario.

The Supervisor of Elections has been highly visible, answering questions raised by party supporters and the local and international media.

In the face of that sits the voter, each with emotional responses that are on a leash. There were questions raised by political parties following that glitch on the first night of counting.

Press conferences were called by the parties highlighting their views on the turn of events. Social media has also been rife with claims and counter claims.

In saying that, the race was tight! That sets the stage for the big announcement. For whatever it’s worth, the result will end speculation and may raise discussions on eventualities if things don’t end the way the leading party leaders want it to.

The guessing game is on! Rumours were rife in the Capital City, and emotions were quite intense in many quarters. But we wait with bated breath for the big reveal!

This editorial was published in The Sunday Times on 18 December 2022 and has been edited slightly in the light of developments. Republished with permission.

The Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) has emerged as the kingmaker in Fiji’s contentious 2022 general election and its leader Viliame Gavoka is in no rush to punch his golden ticket.

After a nightmare leadup to the election, with infighting resulting in a massive split in the party, many punters had all but written Sodelpa off ahead of last week’s polls.

The major opposition political party in the last Parliament, Sodelpa is now a shadow of its former self, just scraping through the electoral system’s 5 percent threshold by the skin of its teeth.

• READ MORE: Fiji elections: Indigenous issues ‘paramount with us’, says Gavoka on coalition talks
• Fiji elections: End 16 years of nation’s ‘bullying, corrupt’ government, pleads Beddoes
• Fiji elections: Rabuka calls for calm after police interrogation
• Other Fiji election reports

Its three Parliamentary seats are the lowest number of any party in the new Parliament and its leadership will be all too aware that the kingmaker position it now finds itself in — courted by parties on all sides — is probably the most leverage it will have for the coming four-year-term.

Speaking to media in the capital Suva yesterday, Gavoka said the party had 14 days to consider its options.

“We are not in any hurry, we understand the importance of this but we’re not gonna rush. We are going to do this properly but with urgency,” he said.

Gavoka said they were speaking to all parties but he was keeping his distance from the process.

“I am not part of the negotiating team. We set the parameters for negotiations, and we have redefined what is non-negotiable and what is negotiable and that is handed over to the negotiating team to talk to both parties,” he said.

“All those policies were collectively framed by the management board.”

So, what are Sodelpa’s non-negotiables?
Given that Sodelpa’s campaign slogan was “Time for change”, Gavoka is going to have to come up with something better than “we will make the best decision for Fiji” to convince his hardcore followers to swallow the pill of a partnership with FijiFirst.

Gavoka has provided assurance to Sodelpa’s supporters that whatever coalition it agrees to, its iTaukei policies will prevail:

• Reestablishment of the Great Council of Chiefs;
• Education policy — free tertiary and forgiveness of the student loan (TELS); and
• Set up an embassy in Jerusalem. “Fiji being a very Christian country, we want our presence in the Holy Land.”

When Gavoka was pressed by media on his close family ties to FijiFirst’s general secretary – his son-in-law, Aiyaz-Sayed Khaiyum, his response appeared non-committal.

“You know, we’ve been political rivals in Parliament for eight years and that’s pretty clear. In the form of Parliament, there’s no family but outside Parliament you’re family.”

On the other hand, there is lingering distrust between Sodelpa and its former leader Sitiveni Rabuka, whose new People’s Alliance Party has emerged the runner-up in its election debut with 21 parliamentary seats, just behind FijiFirst’s 26.

Rabuka believes a partnership with Sodelpa is the best fit.

‘Natural for us’
“I think it’s natural for us to forge a coalition because when we look at our manifestos and policies, and vision statements, etc. they are in harmony and all of them individually and collectively are diametrically opposed to the FijiFirst policy reforms,” Rabuka said.

No agreement has yet been signed by either but talks are underway.

“We’ve taken it as far as they gave us the opportunity for yesterday, we provided our team to talk with the team, and the result of that has not come back to us,” said Rabuka.

Rabuka has confirmed that he has not spoken directly to the Sodelpa leader.

“I’m in the process of doing so.”

Gavoka, however has said he would rather not.

“You don’t want to insert yourself into the negotiations. Our people are negotiating with their people. The two leaders are best to stay apart. That’s the way I’d like to do it,” said Gavoka.

The other potential coalition partner should Sodelpa go with Rabuka over Bainimarama is the National Federation Party, led by Professor Biman Prasad.

‘A reasonable man’
Sodelpa and NFP have spent the past two parliamentary terms in the opposition.

“I’ve had a talk with the Sodelpa team, and also met the leader Bill.

“Bill and I have worked together before and he has always been a reasonable man,” Professor Prasad said.

“I think he understands the enormity of why people have voted us from the opposition and voted for a new government. And I’m sure he understands it, we understand it, and Mr Rabuka understands it and I think it looks very positive.”

The Sodelpa management board will be meeting today to consider both coalition proposals.

Meanwhile, despite RNZ Pacific attempts to get comments from FijiFirst it has not received a response.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

Former opposition Sodelpa member Mick Beddoes has appealed to the party’s management board to end the 16-year rule of Voreqe Bainimarama’s FijiFirst government.

In an open letter on his official Facebook page to Sodelpa vice-president Ro Teimumu Kepa, president Ratu Manoa Roragaca, leader Viliame Gavoka and the management board today, Beddoes said: “After many years of inner turmoil, you have the entire country holding their breath to hear your decision, which will either deliver to our people a Christmas gift unlike any we have had for the past 16 years or you will knowingly condemn us all to another four more years of undeserved vindictive, bullying, corrupt, self serving, self enriching and uncaring governance.”

He added that the decision to stay with the people was a “no brainer” to avoid a “hung” parliament.

• READ MORE: Fiji elections: Bainimarama’s FijiFirst party fails to gain parliament majority
• Fiji elections: Rabuka calls for calm after police interrogation
• Fiji elections: Alliance leads early vote tally – Bainimarama heads candidates
• Fiji elections: ‘We have evidence’ People’s Alliance ahead, says Rabuka
• Fiji elections: Rabuka raises concern over results app glitch
• Provisional results in Fiji election show ruling FijiFirst party in the lead
• Other Fiji election reports

The official results indicated that FijiFirst had lost its majority with just 26 members of the expanded 55-seat Parliament — the same combined number as the opposition coalition of the People’s Alliance led by former 1987 coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka (21 members) and the National Federation Party (5 seats).

Soldelpa – the only other party of nine contesting the general elections to get across the 5 percent threshold — hold the balance of power with three seats.

“While the decision to stay with the greater interest of all our people, is a ‘no brainer’ I do appreciate the need for the party to take into account the interests and aspirations of its membership,” Beddoes said.

“However, in doing so it has to be weighed against the greater interest of our nation given we have all witnessed in broad daylight and experienced over the past 16 years the greed and self enrichment by the narrow interests of the favored few and as the voting thus far has very clearly indicated por people want change and we as opposition political leaders are ‘obliged to deliver this’ as this is what we promised.”

‘Theft’ of the Fijian name
“Need I remind you that this is the very same government who raided your home at night and took you in for interrogation because you offered to host the Methodist Church Conference, this is the same government who from 2007 to 2013 imposed more than 17 derogatory decrees against your own people, which among other things included the ‘theft’ of the name Fijian from your people by a stroke of a pen, and they banned the right of educated iTaukei students from attending and supporting their respective provincial councils.

“They have excluded your own people from chair positions and board appointments by a margin of 80 percent from all government entities under the guise of ‘merit based’ appointments.

“When they had the opportunity to remove all these oppressive and discriminatory decrees at the time they drafted and imposed their 2013 constitution prior to the 2014 elections, they did not and it remains the law against your people today and they built in provision into the constitution that makes amendments to the constitution near impossible.

“This government’s policies and deliberate discrimination against your own people has resulted your people accounting for 75 percent of our 208,256 absolute poorest citizens, which means more than 156,192 of your own people live in absolute poverty despite owning 89 percent of all the land and you want to even ‘consider’ talking to them?”

Beddoes said Ro Teimumu led Soldelpa in the first opposition challenge that resulted in their first national platform from which to speak out and he was part of the team then.

“In that first effort in 2014, Sodelpa and its opposition colleagues received 202,650 votes to FijiFirst’s 293,714, we were 91,064 short. In our second effort in 2018, we increased our support level to 227,094 vs FijiFirst’s 227,241 and reduced their advantage to just 147 votes.

“Today while we are all still trying to figure out where all the extra votes came from the latest vote tally show we are at this time 58,635 votes ahead and you, Marama, are once again in a position with Bill and your management board to complete the mission we all started back in 2007 and remove the cruel, vindictive, bullying, arrogant, disrespectful and uncaring government that FijiFirst is.

“I beg you Marama, Ratu Manoa and you Bill and your management board, please do not waiver from our initial promise of change and finish the mission we started 15 years ago and end our 16 years of suffering and please give our people the Christmas gift they all deserve.”

Sodelpa in negotiations with both sides
SBS News reports that Sodelpa is in negotiations with both the FijiFirst government and People’s Alliance over which it will support with its balance of power.

Bainimarama’s FijiFirst party is the largest single party with 42.5 per cent of the vote while People’s Alliance and the NFP — which have already said they would join forces — sit at 36 and nine percent respectively.

Sodelpa holds just over five percent of the vote.

Sodelpa general secretary Lenaitasi Duru said today it would enter a second round of negotiations with both parties.

Talebula Kate is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

Rabuka says “no deal signed yet. Negotiations are ongoing” with Sodelpa. #FijiVotes2022 https://t.co/yTsVanBO2K pic.twitter.com/lLAb744TbU

— Kelvin Anthony (@kelvinfiji) December 18, 2022

The People’s Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka claims the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) “has sold its soul” in secretly “working in cahoots” with the FijiFirst party after SODELPA lodged a complaint against the alliance with the Fijian Elections Office yesterday.

Rabuka claimed the complaint against the People’s Alliance on the reinstatement of the Great Council of Chiefs and abolishment of the soli ni yasana proved that SODELPA no longer worked in the best interests of the iTaukei but for the benefit of the FijiFirst party.

In a statement yesterday, he claimed the complaint had shown that “not only is the SODELPA president aligned with FijiFirst and Bainimarama, SODELPA, through their general secretary as the authorised officer of the party, is now working behind the scenes to fix the marriage”.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji elections reports

However, SODELPA general secretary Lenaitasi Duru said the party believed the People’s Alliance had not fulfilled a requirement of the Electoral Act regarding the declaration of funds to finance their manifesto.

“We are just following the law, the Act, the provisions that are there, we have done it so we expect everybody that’s putting out a manifesto to do it,” he said.

At a media conference yesterday, Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said the complaint was not grounds for deregistering the People’s Alliance.

He said they had asked the PA to provide a response.

“No, the party can’t be deregistered,” Saneem said.

However, he said the PA might be referred to the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption for failure to comply with Section 116.

He said the party had until today to respond to the FEO.

• The Fiji general election is on December 14.

Felix Chaudhary is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

The Fijian Elections Office has given the green light to 342 candidates from nine political parties and two independents to contest the December 14 general election.

Twelve candidates have been rejected and two have withdrawn.

Elections Supervisor Mohammed Saneem said his office had received a total of 356 nominations after candidate nominations closed on Monday.

• READ MORE: Fiji PM claims only his party can deliver for the people
• Other Fiji election reports

Saneem said four parties submitted nominations for 55 candidates, which included FijiFirst, SODELPA, the People’s Alliance and the National Federation Party.

The ruling FijiFirst party and the People’s Alliance have all its 55 candidates confirmed to contest the 2022 elections, while the National Federation Party and SODELPA have 54 candidates approved.

The Fiji Labour Party has 42 approved candidates, Unity Fiji has 38, We Unite Fiji has 20, All Peoples Party has 14, and New Generation Party has 5.

“In this election, there are 56 females who have been nominated, and there are 287 males that will be contesting the election. In comparison in 2018, we have 56 females and 179 males,” Saneem said.

“So the male-to-female ratio is 83 percent are males and 16 percent females.”

There will be two independent candidates — both males.

The number of people contesting the polls is higher than in the 2018 election — which had 235 candidates.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

Fijians will go to the polls to choose their next government on December 14.

In a statement yesterday, the Fiji government said Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama visited President Wiliame Katonivere on Sunday morning to advise him on the date of the general election.

Parliament has also been dissolved with immediate effect as the government moves into caretaker mode.

• READ MORE: Fiji announces general election date – December 14
• Other Fiji election reports

Almost 700,000 Fijians are registered to choose their next government in a one-day election set to cost F$26 million.

The Chair of Fiji’s Electoral Commission, Mukesh Nand, said the Fijian Elections Office team of 7541 staff would conduct polling between 7.30am to 6pm on election day, in 855 venues across the country.

There are also 613 early voting venues. More than11,000 people registered for postal votes during the 2018 Fijian elections.

Bainimarama has been in power since a 2006 military coup that led to him becoming acting president and acting prime minister before being sworn in as prime minister following the 2014 election.

He also spent several months in Australia earlier this year recovering from heart surgery.

The ruling FijiFirst Party has announced a further 10 provisional candidates to its line up of aspiring parliamentarians, the most notable of whom is former SODELPA MP Mosese Bulitavu.

Opposition welcomes election
The leader of one of Fiji’s main opposition political parties said the next six weeks would be one of the most critical periods in the country’s history.

National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad said that four more years of Voreqe Bainimarama and his Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum in power would destroy Fiji’s democracy and reduce the nation to a “two-man dictatorship”.

He said only a fresh start, under a new People’s Alliance and NFP government, could take Fiji away from the politics of fear and division.

Prasad said the people now had the chance to vote in a government that would bring the country together and “lead with vision, humility, and compassion”.

Fiji government agencies have plans to provide free transportation for all voters during election day.

The FBC reports the Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem as saying a public transport booklet would be released detailing what would be operating to help voters on polling day.

He said there would be alternatives in areas that had no bus services.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

In Fiji’s politically charged context, national elections are historically a risky period. Since the 2022 campaign period was declared open on April 26, the intensity has been increasing.

Moreover, with three governments toppled by coups after the 1987, 1999 and 2006 elections, concerns about a smooth transfer of power are part of the national conversation.

The frontrunners in the election, which must be held by January 2023 but is likely to be held later this year, are two former military strongmen — Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.

• READ MORE: Social media in Fiji’s national election
• Gender quotas and the 2021 Samoan constitutional crisis
• Other Fiji democracy articles

Both men have been involved in Fijian coups in the past.  Rabuka took power through the 1987 coups in the name of Indigenous self-determination. He became the elected prime minister in 1992 but lost power in 1999 after forming a coalition with a largely Indo–Fijian party.

Bainimarama staged his 2006 coup in the name of good governance, multiracialism and eradicating corruption, before restoring electoral democracy and winning elections under the FijiFirst (FF) party banner in 2014 and 2018.

FijiFirst was formed by the leaders and supporters of the 2006 coup during the transition back to democratic government via the 2014 election. Many of the FF leaders were part of the post-coup interim government that created the 2013 constitution, which delivered substantial changes to Fiji’s electoral system.

These changes included the elimination of seats reserved for specific ethnicities, replaced by a single multi-member constituency covering the whole country, and the creation of a single national electoral roll. Seat distribution is proportional, meaning each of the eight competing parties will need to get five percent of the vote to win one of the 55 seats up for grabs this year.

Popularity a key factor
As votes for a particular candidate are distributed to those lower down their parties’ ticket once they cross the five percent threshold, the popularity of single candidates can make or break a party’s electoral hopes.

For example, Bainimarama individually garnered 69 percent of FF’s total votes in 2014 and 73.81 percent in 2018, demonstrating the extent to which his party’s fortunes rest on his personal brand.

This will be crucial as FF’s majority rests on a razor thin margin, having won in 2018 with only 50.02 percent of the vote, compared to its 59.14 percent in 2014.

As for his major rival Rabuka, following his split with the major Indigenous Fijian party, Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), he formed and now heads the People’s Alliance Party (PAP).

The split came after Rabuka lost a leadership tussle with SODELPA stalwart Viliame Gavoka. Rabuka’s departure is seen as a setback for SODELPA, given that he attracted 77,040, or 42.55 percent, of the total SODELPA votes in 2018.

When it comes to issues, the state of the economy, including cost of living and national debt, are expected to be at the top of most voters’ minds. Covid-19 brought a sudden halt to tourism — which before the pandemic made up 39 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) — putting 115,000 people out of work.

As a result, the government borrowed heavily during this period, which according to the Ministry of Economy saw the “debt-to-GDP ratio increase to over 80 percent at the end of March 2022 compared to around 48 per cent pre-pandemic”.

Poverty ‘undercounted’
The government stated that it borrowed to prevent economic collapse, while the opposition accused it of reckless spending. The World Bank put the poverty level at 24.1 percent in April 2022, but opposition politicians have claimed this is an undercount.

For example, the leader of the National Federation Party (NFP) Professor Biman Prasad has claimed the real level of unemployment is more than 50 percent.

Adding to this pressure is inflation, which reached 4.7 percent in April — up from 1.9 percent in February — and while the government blames price increases in wheat, fuel, and other staples on the war in Ukraine, the opposition attributes it to poor economic fundamentals.

Another factor which could define the election outcome was the pre-election announcement of a coalition between the PAP and NFP. By combining the two largest opposition parties, there is clearly a hope to form a viable multiethnic alternative to FF.

This strategy, however, is not without risks in the country’s complex political milieu. In the 1999 election, the coalition between Rabuka’s ruling Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei Party and NFP failed when Rabuka’s 1987 coup history was highlighted during campaigning.

This saw NFP’s Fijian supporters of Indian descent desert the party.

Whether history will repeat itself is one of the intriguing questions in this election. According to some estimates, FF received 71 percent of Indo-Fijian votes in 2014, and capturing this support base is crucial for the opposition’s chances.

Transfer of power concerns
Against the background of pressing economic and social issues loom concerns about a smooth transfer of power. Besides Fiji’s coup culture, such anxieties are fuelled by a constitutional provision seen to give the military carte blanche to intervene in national politics.

Section 131(2) of the 2013 Fijian constitution states: ‘It shall be the overall responsibility of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces to ensure at all times the security, defence and well-being of Fiji and all Fijians’.

This has concerned many opposition leaders, such as NFP president Pio Tikoduadua, who has called for the country to rethink how this aspect of the constitution should be understood.

These concerns are likely to increase by the prospect of a close or hung election. As demonstrated after last year’s Samoan general election, the risk of a protracted dispute over the results could have adverse implications for a stable outcome.

As such, it is essential that all candidates immediately commit to respect the final result of the election whatever it may be and lay the foundations for a peaceful transition of power. In the longer-term interest, however, it will be necessary for Fiji to clarify the potential domestic power of the military implied by the constitution to put all undue speculation to rest. 

Dr Shailendra Singh is coordinator of the University of the South Pacific journalism programme. This article is based on a paper published by ANU Department of Pacific Affairs (DPA) as part of its “In brief” series. The original paper can be found here. It was first published at Policy Forum, Asia and the Pacific’s platform for public policy analysis and opinion. Republished with the permission of the author.

Women’s participation in decision-making is fundamental to improving gender equality but despite making up half of Fiji’s population, representation at all levels of leadership for women is severely lacking, says an opposition political leader.

The leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), Viliame Gavoka, said this in his statement as the international community commemorates International Women’s Day today.

Gavoka said this year’s theme reminded Fijians that bias made it difficult for women to move ahead.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific gender reports

He said knowing that bias existed was not enough, action was needed to level the playing field.

Gavoka said that for far too long, Fiji had continued to “shamelessly lag behind” in protecting and promoting women’s rights and their peace-building expertise.

“A study carried out by the Fiji Women Right’s Movement reveals that 42 percent of Fiji boards or executive committees of for-profit or non-profit organisations or government agencies have no women at all and 26 percent have less than one-third female participation,” Gavoka said.

“The research on gender diversity and equality on boards looked at 192 board members across 38 government-controlled organisations and state-owned enterprises,” he said.

“The purpose of the research was to determine the level of women’s representation in the boards of the 38 entities.”

Lack of diversity
He said the research also identified challenges that limited the participation of women in Fiji’s leadership, such as lack of diversity and opportunity for women elected to preside as board chair.

“According to the research, women hold only 18 percent of board chair positions and sometimes it is the same women appointed as chair of boards in multiple organisations,” he said.

“In many cases, the same people are on multiple boards. This curtails the opportunities for others to join, contribute and gain board experience.

“Ensuring that women are better represented on boards is important to dismantle patriarchal ideals that are heavily entrenched into our society and limit women’s participation in decision-making.

“There is strong evidence that a gender-equal and diverse governance board improves accountability and diversifies the expertise, knowledge and skills available.”

Gavoka said that when SODELPA would be voted into government, they would ensure to “break barriers and accelerate progress”, including:

• setting specific targets and timelines to achieve gender balance in all branches of government and at all levels through temporary special measures such as quotas and appointments; and
• encouraging political parties to nominate equal numbers of women and men as candidates and implement policies and programmes promoting women’s leadership.

“On this year’s International Women’s Day, we should also pause and reflect on the sacrifices of our women in all facets of society despite the challenges they’ve endured to bring change and progress.”

Republished with permission.

A human rights advocate in Fiji says the country should be ashamed of the exile of the now dead celebrated academic professor Brij Lal and his family.

Professor Lal was expelled from Fiji in 2009 after speaking out against coup leader Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s FijiFirst government.

Lal died at his home in Brisbane on Christmas Day. Tributes have been pouring in since.

• READ MORE:  The Fiji Times: Professor Lal’s life leaves many lessons to appreciate and value
• Professor Brij Lal: A champion of democracy and Fiji’s finest scholar
• Renowned Fijian academic dies in exile
• Professor Brij Vilash Lal passes away
• Fiji’s finest scholar dies

Rights advocate Shamima Ali, coordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, said that while the region mourned Professor Lal’s death, people should not forget the injustice meted out to him and his wife.

Ali said the government disrespected academia and the contributions academics made to Fiji’s development.

In the case of the Lals, Ali said there had been a “miscarriage of justice and a gross violation of their basic human rights — the right to nationality and citizenship and to a fair trial”.

Ali said Lal’s “writings and utterances irked the government” so they banned him from Fiji.

‘Smacks of sexism’
“And Dr Padma Lal, along with her husband, was also banned from Fiji.

“This smacks of sexism and once again disregards Dr Lal’s illustrious career as an ecological economist and her work on the sugar industry and environment.

“I urge the Fiji Human Rights and Anti Discrimination Commission to step up and challenge this draconian decision of arbitrarily banning citizens and taking away their birthright.”

Lal’s legacy would live on as an upstanding human being and citizen of our country, Ali said.

“Shame on you, Fiji. Those who violated his and Padma’s rights will surely live in ignominy and infamy.

“There is still time for a change, to amend the wrongs, too late for Brij but not for his family.”

Sad day for Fiji, says Sodelpa
Fiji’s main opposition party said the death of Professor Lal in exile was a sad time for Fiji.

The Social Democratic Liberal Party said Lal had hoped that he would one day return to his homeland.

Fiji claimed to have democracy but it still has a very long way to go, said Sodelpa leader Viliame Gavoka.

“The news of Professor Brij Lal’s passing fills me with great pain,” he said.

“We all know about him, a favourite son of Fiji who was refused permission to return home.

“He lived and hoped that he would one day come home and many of us pleaded for his case.”

But Gavoka said now he had died in a foreign land, away from his people and loved ones.

“How can our hearts be so hardened that we denied someone the right to his homeland and all because he expressed views different from those at the helm of leadership.

“Professor Brij Lal was loved by many and his legacy will live on in Fiji.”

Fiji poorer with loss of academic, says NFP
Among historians and scholars, Professor Lal stood tall around the world, said the National Federation Party.

From a poor farming family in Tabia, Vanua Levu, NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad said Professor Lal rose to be an emeritus professor of Pacific and Asian history at the Australian National University, one of the world’s highest-ranked places of learning.

“He was an acknowledged expert on the Indian diaspora around the world.

He was recognised as the pre-eminent historian on the history of indenture and Girmitiya.”

In his obituary to Professor Lal, Dr Prasad said Fiji was poorer with the passing of the academic.

“Professor Brij Lal banished from the land of his birth by the Bainimarama government in November 2009 for championing democracy and barred from entering Fiji upon the orders of the prime minister, has died, 12 years after the draconian act of a heartless government,” Dr Prasad said.

“The sudden and shocking death of Professor Brij Lal at the age of 69 should create a moment for all Fiji citizens to pause and reflect, even while we are distracted by our many personal challenges brought on by the pandemic and our other deep national problems.”

Dr Prasad said Lal was “a giant on the international academic stage” who was banned by the Bainimarama and FijiFirst government from returning to the place of his birth.

“But the pettiness of our leaders will not take away Prof Lal’s towering achievements and scholarship, for which he will one day be fully recognised in the place he was born.

“All of us in Fiji are the poorer for his irreplaceable loss.”

Dr Prasad said the NFP had organised a condolence gathering to remember Professor Lal.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Fiji’s opposition SODELPA leader Viliame Gavoka has condemned Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum for their “unimaginable recklessness” over the country’s covid pandemic crisis.

The politicians should know “they are held responsible for every covid-19 death for not listening and not doing what is right,” Gavoka said.

Fiji has reported a record 636 new positive covid-19 cases and six deaths in the last 24-hour period ending at 8am today.

• READ MORE: Covid-19: Six deaths and 636 news cases reported in Fiji
• Fiji mortuary full, public frustration, confusion rife over covid-19
• Fiji reports record 522 new cases of covid-19 – three more deaths
• Sayed-Khaiyum leading Fiji into chaos, says women’s crisis centre leader
• Other reports on the Fiji covid crisis

Gavoka said: “To the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General, this is the message — health first.

“The economy is second and will rebound.

“There is no balancing act between the two, as clearly evident by the disaster we have today.”

Gavoka said “the disastrous situation with covid-19” was because of the “we know best attitude” and the recklessness on the part of the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General.

“The current situation could have been avoided if the Prime Minister and Attorney-General listened to repeated calls for a national lockdown to contain the virus within a zone or border and carry out mass vaccination,” he said.

“Instead, the government decided to allow people to travel through borders bragging about its protocols, recklessly taking huge risks at a time when cases were spiking. The permanent Secretary for Health keeps saying, “when people move, the virus moves”.

Sayed-Khaiyum and Bainimarama did not respond to the statement made by Gavoka after a copy was sent via email yesterday.

Litia Cava is a Fiji Times reporter. This article is republished with permission.

The writing is on the wall for Fiji’s main opposition party, says New Zealand-based Fijian academic Professor Steven Ratuva.

His comments come in the wake of the sudden resignation of former Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) leader Sitiveni Rabuka from Parliament yesterday.

Ratuva said it was expected after Rabuka lost the SODELPA leadership to Nadroga MP Viliame Gavoka just 11 days ago.

• READ MORE: Rabuka resigns from Parliament
• Crosbie Walsh on Fiji’s ‘changing of the guard’

Rabuka told Parliament his departure would pave the way for the President, Jioji Konrote, to ask Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to work with the new leader of the opposition and party members.

Rabuka said he could not continue as opposition leader and an MP because the prime minister did not trust him enough to work with him.

But Dr Ratuva, director of the MacMillan Brown Pacific for Studies at the University of Canterbury, said there was more to it than that.

It also signalled more trouble for SODELPA, which has been rocked with months of tensions which split the party in April.

SODELPA was suspended by the Supervisor of Elections over breach of political rules and the party constitution.

The suspension was lifted 35 days later but factions within the party remain.

On November 27, Rabuka was replaced as leader by Gavoka who had supported his predecessor to remain as SODELPA leader.

Rabuka’s resignation ‘no surprise’
Ratuva said Rabuka’s resignation was no surprise to him.

“It was coming because of the leadership struggle within the party and the multi-layered tensions to do with vanua politics, regional loyalty, personality differences, gender ethnicity and the generational gap,” he said.

“They are all packed on top of each other and Rabuka had to resign as a result of all of these complex tensions within the party.

“The writings were on the wall.”

Ratuva said it was unfortunate because Rabuka had the biggest voter-pulling power in SODELPA.

That was evident at the 2018 election when Rabuka returned to politics and led SODELPA to win 21 seats in the 52-seat parliament, Ratuva said.

He was not sure if Gavoka had the same charisma and mana to pull the voters into SODELPA.

“But certainly Rabuka was [able to pull the voters],” he said.

“And Rabuka could have easily won the next election if he had continued with the leadership of the party.”

Rabuka was elected leader of SODELPA in 2016, succeeding high chief Ro Teimumu Kepa, who publicly disapproved of Rabuka’s nomination to replace her at the time.

On 26 November 2018, Rabuka was appointed as the leader of the opposition to Parliament following the party’s 2018 election defeat.

But this week, Rabuka – who led two coups in 1987 – announced he was leaving the august house.

No-one knows how long for – all Rabuka said was he would go away and ponder his next move.

Mixed reactions
Reactions have come fast and hard following Rabuka’s resignation, and they have been mixed.

New SODELPA leader Viliame Gavoka said he was shocked and saddened because he looked forward to contesting the 2022 polls with Rabuka by his side.

Gavoka said Rabuka had the firepower to help SODELPA win the election.

“This country needs a lot of institutions to be strengthened and someone like him is someone we can call up for help and he has agreed to do that.

“We are still trying to process this, no doubt at the end of the day we’ll know where we stand.”

Ro Teimumu said Rabuka had left a “huge gap” with his departure from parliament.

The Roko Tui Dreketi thanked Rabuka for his contributions, saying “his shoes would be difficult to fill”.

Ro Teimumu said it took a lot of courage for Rabuka to do what he did.

“He departs the opposition and the parliament with a clean heart and a clear conscious and he is a happy man believing that what he has done was the right thing to do.”

There’s no doubt that the future of SODELPA will determine Rabuka’s next move.

Prime Minister Bainimarama and the attorney-general acknowledged Rabuka’s contributions to the house.

Opposition whip Lynda Tabuya said she supported Rabuka’s move.

Tabuya lost the deputy leader position to Suva lawyer Filimoni Vosarogo when Rabuka was replaced.

MP Mosese Bulitavu said Rabuka’s resignation did not come as a surprise, saying he had “done the honourable thing”.

National Federation Party (NFP) leader Professor Biman Prasad said the NFP had always supported Rabuka and was sad to see him leave parliament.

Road to recovery
Ratuva said SODELPA now had its work cut out, less than two years out from the general election.

SODELPA needed to maintain the support Rabuka had brought to the party, “which it is probably going to lose”, he said.

Although he has said he would remain with SODELPA, Rabuka had options elsewhere if he wanted to distance himself from the tensions within party, Ratuva said.

“He’s got a number of choices either to remain within the party – which means that his role will diminish significantly – or he moves on and joins perhaps the Fiji Unity Party which is growing in terms of its significance and attractiveness to voters at the moment.

“The Fiji Unity Party is the only party now which has a coherent plan for economic rehabilitation and development for the country.

“Led by the former governor of the reserve bank, the Unity Party is well positioned to welcome some of those supporters of SODELPA who are probably looking for alternatives.”

Ratuva said if Rabuka joined the Unity Party, he would take his voters with him and “some of his supporters have been with him since 1987”.

Rabuka was still “seen as a hero to some Fijians, although that may be misplaced… But they are that voting block that Rabuka still has some degree of control over.”

If that did happen, SODELPA would lose that group of voters and the Unity Party could come out on top, Ratuva said, adding that the Unity Party could be the only people who would gain from Rabuka’s departure from SODELPA.

Fiji’s Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) leader Sitiveni Rabuka is confident of winning government benches in the 2018 general election.

SODELPA, the largest opposition party from the 2014 election in Fiji, currently has 15 seats while FijiFirst has 32 and the National Federation Party has three in a 50-seat Parliament.

SODELPA was established in 2013 after the dissolution of its predecessor, the then ruling Soqosoqo ni Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) party.

“I’m looking at, at least 28 seats, which gives us a majority. I have calculated on the basis of the 18 seats that we held. We won 18 seats but then lost three – two to debt and one to imprisonment,” said the enigmatic leader of SODELPA.

“They were replaced by the next three on the list, but those three only missed out by a few votes because of our total party vote.”

Rabuka, notorious for executing the Pacific’s first coup in 1987, says his party is all geared up for the election and ready to start campaigning.

“We are giving out the party message about consolidating the (indigenous) Fijian institutions – the iTaukei institutions and remembering the Bible,” says the former prime minister.

“It is a long struggle.”

Coalition deal sought
As for strategy, he has tried to do his utmost to get the other parties around the table in a coalition deal to take on the ruling FjiFirst party.

“I tried to form a coalition before the elections but based on the views of their supporters, they preferred not to be seen holding hands with me, so they decided no, we’ll go it alone.”

Rabuka seemed to undergo a change in attitude in the years after his coup. He formed a partnership with the then National Federation Party leader, Jai Ram Reddy, to usher in the more equitable 1997 Constitution.

But ironically, their coalition suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1999 election to the Fiji Labour Party led group.

Rabuka made it clear that a grand coalition with FijiFirst, post-election, is not on the cards and will never be, as long as he remains leader of SODELPA.

“With FijiFirst, we have not considered that, and I will not consider it,” he says as a bottom line.

“We are diametrically opposed in our views,” he says with a stern gaze.

Record of service
And, why should people vote for SODELPA, which is looked suspiciously in some quarters as a nationalist party, unlike FijiFirst, which claims multiracialism as its manifesto?

“We believe we have the record of service, a leadership that listens to the people,” said Rabuka, who was prime minister of Fiji from 1992-1999.

“We have compassionate leadership, and we have the will to do what is right, with malice towards none.”

He has several planks on which to campaign this election, and he outlines them:

“We are going to campaign on social justice, looking after the marginalised, the weak in society; we will continue with the social programmes in the past and spread the national wealth as widely as possible,” he says, reciting his well-practised mantra.

He denies notions that SODELPA is perceived as an iTaukei (indigenous) party.

“Some view us as that, but it is not factual, as we have shown,” he says.

“We are just carrying on what started in the Deed of Cession (1874), where we promote civilisation and Christianity.

Good governance
“We increase industry and trade, and good governance in the interest of the natives, as well as the white population – those are words of the Deed of Cession.

“We continue in the same trend as continued in the colonial days; the Alliance days, the SVT days and the SDL days.”

He vehemently disagrees with the abolition of the Great Council of Chiefs (Bose Levu Vakaturaga), disbanded in March 2012 by current Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

“It was the wrong thing to do because the universal cry now is for indigenous institutions since the declaration on the rights of the indigenous peoples on December 13, 2007.

“The Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) should be re-established. They have no executive role, but they have a very important mediatory and advisory role.”

As for the claims that the GCC had always tried to be involved in the politics of Fiji, Rabuka admits there is some truth to that accusation.

“They have always tried that. I found that during my time, I had to stand my ground as prime minister and chief executive officer of the government of Fiji.

“I used to say, ‘you are advising me on indigenous matters, on matters of iTaukei, I listen, but I rule in the interest of the nation as a whole’.”

Rabuka has become a consummate politician, a long way from the days when he was third-in-command in the military in 1987, carrying out the orders of the then beaten Alliance government and staging a coup.

Sri Krishnamurthi is a journalist and Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student at Auckland University of Technology. He is attached to the University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme, filing for USP’s Wansolwara News and the AUT Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Report.

The leader of Fiji’s main opposition party, Sitiveni Rabuka, was today charged by anti-corruption investigators, apparently over “anomalies” in his financial declarations.

The SODELPA leader, who is a former prime minister and was the first coup leader in 1987, was called in for questioning last night and for much of this morning before the charges were announced at about midday.

He was due to appear in court later today.

READ MORE: SODELPA leader appears in court

In a brief statement outside the Suva offices of the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC), Rabuka’s lawyer Lynda Tabuya confirmed he had been charged with a regulatory offence.

RNZ Pacific understands the charges relate to an alleged anomaly in his financial declarations for 2017, a requirement under the Political Parties Decree. Rabuka maintained his innocence.

Rabuka is not currently an MP, so SODELPA’s makeup in parliament will not be affected by the charges. However, this does throw a spanner into the party’s plans ahead of elections scheduled for later this year, on a date yet to be announced.

The instigator of both 1987 coups, Rabuka was made party leader in 2016 to go up against Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, the FijiFirst leader and instigator of the 2006 coup.

‘Politically motivated’
In his statement, Rabuka hinted that the charges could be politically motivated.

“We are under attack,” he said to a group of journalists outside the offices.

“So many forces coming against us at this time, the only thing we can do is appeal to the supreme strength, and that is God.”

In an earlier video statement posted to his Facebook page, Rabuka called for supporters to remain calm.

“I urge all members to remain steadfast and not to panic. If I go I go, others will be there to continue the race.”

Earlier this week, in an interview with RNZ Pacific, Rabuka criticised what he considered a lack of democratic freedoms in Fiji, particularly the sedition laws under which The Fiji Times, a letter writer, and senior journalist were being tried and acquitted.

The SODELPA leader is the second member of the opposition party to be taken in by ICAC this parliamentary term, after the MP Ratu Isoa Tikoca was charged and suspended.

He was acquitted last year.

This RNZ Pacific news item is published under a content sharing agreement with the Pacific Media Centre.

Fiji’s 2018 General Election is going to be a close contest between the ruling FijiFirst and the opposition parties, according to a leading New Zealand-based Fiji academic.

Professor Steven Ratuva, political sociologist and director of the MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury, says the election will be “won and lost” over the undecided, currently a third of the eligible voters.

Dr Ratuva made the comment in response to a Tebbutt-Times poll conducted on February 5-8 with 1000 randomly sampled people who were eligible voters.

According to the results of the poll on the public’s voting intention, a staggering 34 percent said they were not sure who to vote for, 8 percent declined to answer the question and half a percent said they did not intend to vote.

Thirty-two percent said they would vote for FijiFirst, 22 percent for Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), 3 percent for National Federation Party (NFP) and 1 percent for Fiji Labour Party (FLP).

When looking only at the percentages for those who selected a party (removing the undecided voters), 56 percent selected FijiFirst, 38 percent SODELPA, 5 percent NFP, 1 percent FLP, 0.2 per cent Unity Fiji Party, and 0.1 per cent independent.

Slender lead
Dr Ratuva said of those who expressed their party preferences, FijiFirst had a slender lead of 6 percent with a total of 32 percent (or equivalent to 16 seats) compared with 26 percent (or 13 seats) by all the other opposition parties combined.

“The interesting factor here is the large number of undecided voters totalling 34 percent (or 21 seats).

“This is where the election will be won and lost. So very hypothetically, 21 seats are up for grabs,” said Dr Ratuva.

He said FijiFirst would need at least 18 percent and above of these undecided voters to get over the 50 percent barrier and win the election while the opposition parties needed 24 percent.

“These results show that there have been a lot of movement’s since the last election in terms of people’s preferences as a result of changing perceptions of issues, perceptions of parties, experience of changing circumstances and how they respond to these.

“Whichever way the votes shift, we can be certain that the election might be very close. The next three political party-based polls will begin to provide a much clearer picture of where things are moving as campaigns begin in earnest and the elections come closer.”

Analysing the results, University of the South Pacific economist Dr Neelesh Gounder said the support for FijiFirst had reached an all-time low since the 2014 election, when it had received almost 60 percent of all the votes cast.

Bainimarama’s popularity rises
“While Bainimarama’s popularity has increased by 20 percent in February 2018 compared with February 2017, FijiFirst party as the preferred choice has decreased by 5 percent during the same period (from 37 percent in February 2017 to 32 percent in February 2018),” Dr Gounder said.

He said comparing poll results of preferred party with preferred PM, there was now a clear “delink” between the two.

“It seems there is no clear link between Bainimarama’s popularity as the PM and FijiFirst party as the preferred party.

“On the other hand, both opposition parties SODELPA and NFP have gained in terms of the choice for preferred party.

“SODELPA, in particular, has strengthened its position with a 9 percent increase in preferred party choice (from 13 percent in February 2017 to 22 percent in February 2018).

“Support for NFP has increased from 1 percent to 3 percent.”

He said also interesting was the percent of undecided voters.

“Despite the reduction in undecided voters, 34 percent [from 40 percent] is large and can play a significant role in which party or parties form government after the 2018 election. The challenge for SODELPA and NFP is the continuation of the momentum towards attracting undecided voters towards their party and candidates,” Dr Gounder said.

“For FijiFirst, given how this scenario has evolved since 2014, it might be beneficial to have elections sooner than later. This strategy might avoid FijiFirst 2014 voters who are now undecided from moving to the opposition.”

• Reaction from political parties

Social Democratic Liberal Party leader and former military coup maker Sitiveni Rabuka says the rioting and assault on some Fijians of Indian descent 30 years ago were the deliberate actions of “selfish people” and he has apologised for it.

“Many of [the culprits] have been dealt with according to law,” he said at the weekend about the violence of Fiji’s first coup on 14 May 1987.

“I pray that God Almighty will grant all those hurting the grace to forgive me. To you I say, I am sorry.”

Looking back 30 years, the former prime minister said he had on many occasions apologised publicly to Fijians of Indian descent and he continued to make reparations for 1987.

And as Fijians remembered the 30th anniversary of the events of Fiji’s first coup yesterday, Rabuka said he emphatically acknowledged that coups were not the way to resolve any type of national situation in a civilised society.

Coups went directly against the very basic principles of human decency and rights and his Christian beliefs, he said.

‘Fiji at crossroads’
“Fiji is at a crossroads and there are many wounds that need healing,” Rabuka said.

“It is important that our leaders are more responsible with their actions and works, to encourage and promote peace and goodwill among Fiji’s religious and ethnic communities.”

He reassured all minority religious and ethnic communities that the opposition SODELPA was committed to assuring their security in Fiji because they also belonged to Fiji with the indigenous Fijians.

“We respect and appreciate your contributions to Fiji.

“We want to work together with you for a more peaceful, prosperous Fiji.”

Rabuka added SODELPA would promote closer inter-ethnic cooperation, partnership and goodwill which would be the mainstay of a lasting peace that would prevent future political crises.

However, he said he did not start the “coup culture” in Fiji.

Litia Cava is a Fiji Times reporter.

Sitiveni Rabuka was then a lieutenant-colonel and ranked third-in-command in the Royal  — now Republican — Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) on 14 May 1987 and he staged a second coup in September 1987. Fiji has had four coups and the last military coup leader, Commander Voreqe Bainimarama, in 2006 was elected prime minister in a much criticised return to democracy in 2014.

• Why the Fijian plot theory is gaining ground – David Robie in the Times on Sunday

The Fiji Opposition’s bid to have Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama replaced by Leader of the Opposition Ro Teimumu Kepa was defeated in Parliament today. 

Opposition MP Semesa Karavaki had tabled a motion of no confidence against PM Bainimarama and proposed the name of Ro Kepa as Prime Minister.

Health Minister Jone Usamate said the motion had no basis and was an absurd proposal.

The motion had little chance of succeeding from the outset, as the government holds an outright majority in Parliament.  Parliament spent close to five hours debating the motion.

The common theme of the Opposition’s bid was that it wanted a “healer” as PM, instead of an “enforcer”.

Opposition MPs took turns to give various examples of policies they thought were detrimental to the nation.

In response, government MPs took a united stand and spoke highly of PM Bainimarama.

They all took aim at Kepa, accusing SODELPA of being incapable of leading the nation as there were numerous divisions within the party.

All parliamentarians had a chance to contribute to the debate.

The motion was defeated by 28 to 11.  11 members abstained.

Karavaki said under section 94 of the Constitution,  the only way for a sitting Prime Minister to be removed was through a motion of no confidence, barring resignation or death.

He said the nation had to be saved from the road to destruction, and Fiji needed a Prime Minister that could heal its people and not enforce things on the people.

This nation needs to be redeemed, it is apparent we are on the road leading to destruction. I come with a heavy heart. We can see clearly the system brought in by the Fiji government on reforms. Prime Minister now is an enforcer and not a healer. Our land is hurting, our land is crying out to be redeemed.

Karavaki said the PM was a good person but was not a good leader.

Government MP Lorna Eden said the difference between the current Prime Minister and thed Leader of Opposition was confirmed in the 2014 General Elections.

Prime Minister Bainimarama received 202,459 (52 percent) votes in total while the Leader of Opposition, Ro Teimumu Kepa, received 49,485 (13 percent).