Fiji suspends its participation from EDCC - Tikoduadua
Jul 4, 2008, 11:01

Fiji has suspended it’s participation from the Election’s Donor Coordinating Committee (EDCC).

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice Pio Tikoduadua revealed that the committee, which was a subset of the Joint Forum Working Group, would no longer meet because of Fiji’s withdrawal from the group.

However, he said Fiji was still very much engaged with those countries willing to assist in the electoral process but on a bilateral level.

“The EDCC is actually tasked to coordinate the effort of the international community to assist Fiji in preparing for the elections but what has happened is Fiji has declared its position on the Joint Forum Working Group,” he said.

“Fiji will continue to engage with any donor that is willing to engage with Fiji on the bilateral level.”

Mr Tikoduadua said Fiji was not “totally severing ties with the committee” but it would no longer meet as it usually did on a fortnightly basis.

“Fiji is already engaging with a lot of those partners, a lot of our international partners at the bilateral level and we will continue with that and we continue to show our commitment to progressively move towards elections when Fiji is ready to do it,” he said.

He said there was a lot of work being done at the Election’s Office and assistance, both in cash and kind, was pouring in from countries like Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the European Union.

“We thank all the donor countries involved for their participation and for continuing to engage with us in the way they have been engaging previously and we ask them to continue to engage with us, now bilaterally despite the fact that the EDCC has been suspended until further notice,” Mr Tikoduadua said.


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