Vol. 72/No. 43      November 3, 2008

The exclusion of Bainimarama is part of stepped-up pressure by the governments of the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and the European Union. This includes economic and travel sanctions against Fiji following Bainimarama’s ousting of the Laisenia Qarase government in December 2006. These imperialist powers are demanding parliamentary elections be held by March 2009 under the country’s existing constitution and electoral laws.

Bainimarama has said that elections should not be held until the current divisive voting system, which racially classifies people to determine where they can run as candidates and who they can vote for, is removed. It serves to bolster the political power of Fiji’s traditional aristocracy of chiefs.

Throughout the history of modern Fiji, both the British colonial regime and governments since independence in 1970 have worked to divide indigenous Fijians from Indo-Fijians. The latter are descendants of indentured laborers brought from India in the 19th century to work in Fiji’s sugar plantations.

A Great Council of Chiefs was set up under British rule and has dominated Fiji since independence. Among the council’s powers is the right to appoint the president and almost half the senate.

A “Peoples Charter for Change, Peace and Progress” has been drafted by the Bainimarama government, which calls for the electoral laws to be based on proportional representation, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, and casting one vote for one candidate from a common voters roll.

New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark labels the charter “a diversion” and demands any constitutional or electoral changes only be made after elections are held under the current race-based system. On October 11, Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith repeated the threat made at the August meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum that Fiji would be suspended from that regional body if elections are not held in March.

Right-wing forces have carried out three coups in Fiji. Two were in 1987, led by Brig. Sitiveni Rabuka, and one in 2000, led by rightist businessman George Speight. The coups were directed against Labour Party-led governments and sought to shore up the authority of the Great Council of Chiefs.  
 
 
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