Acting Prime Minister and the Attorney-General, Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says there are a number of issues that need to be addressed before the General Election in 2014.
While speaking to participants at the 13th Attorney General’s Conference last week, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said it was imperative to have an accountable electoral system.
He highlighted that when the constitution consultations start in September next year, at least four issues would be non-negotiable.
These are:
-One person, one vote, one value
- Proportional representation or the best form of representation
-No ethnic voting, and
-The voting age to be 18.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum also said the size of Fiji’s parliament needed to be reduced as recommended by the National Council for Building a Better Fiji (NCBBF).
“The idea being that if you have a smaller size parliament but if you pay parliamentarians well, you’ll attract a better caliber of people. Earlier, somebody made a comment and talked about how a person who holds public office perhaps should be able to earn more when they are not holding a public office so holding a public office in fact should attract a better caliber of people and as our recent history has shown, many people who cannot get jobs elsewhere become members of parliament,” Mr Sayed Khaiyum said.
The Attorney- General also quoted the EU Election Observation Mission’s report on the election held in 2006, highlighting issues that Fiji needs to address going forward.
“For example, in registration of voters, it says and I quote: ‘The new register of voters suffered from several shortcomings. These included the misspelling of voters’ names, wrong constituency allocations and the failure to register a greater number of voters. For example, in Labasa district, approximately 700 voters were incorrectly registered in wrong constituencies and in Nadi, Lautoka, Ba constituencies, approximately 1900 voters were incorrectly registered,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
As a result of such errors, a relevant number of voters were deprived of their right to vote and the deadlines of the publication of the register of voters were not respected.
The report adds, ballet papers had several deficiencies and the Office of the Supervisor of Elections, contrary to the constitutional requirements article four, provided only ballet papers in English.
This was disadvantageous to the voters who were literate only in Fijian or Hindi.
“Secondly, the quality of paper used was so poor that the official stamp on the back of the paper was visible on the front side. Thereby, obscuring some party symbols. Third, the placing of party symbol below the line next to the box of the ticking by candidates was confusing as political parties had told voters to tick next to the party symbol.
“Finally, above the line and below the line sections of the ballot papers were not well enough separated and indicated. The office of the Supervisor of Elections used old traditional wooden ballot boxes in three different sizes,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
The report also highlighted that political parties complained that most ballot boxers had sealed sufficient gaps between the lids to allow a ballot paper to be inserted although white plastic number tags were used to seal the lids.
“The report notes that the ethnicity dominated campaign was aggravated by the presence of 46 communal constituencies out of 71, where voters must vote on the base of their ethnic origin,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum added
“These ethnically determined constituencies encouraged candidates to introduce ethnic dimensions into their campaigning. Inter-ethnic issues such as poverty, education, economic growth, portable water, roads, unemployment and electricity were really addressed as common issues.
“During the campaign, one issue which emerged in relations to a possible FLP victory was whether a country would respect the rule of law or if the election of another Indo-Fijian Prime Minister would again precipitate a coup? In the final days of the campaign, the indigenous Fijian SDL leader Mr Qarase publicly raised the concern that the election of an Indo-Fijian Prime Minister will lead to further civil unrest.
“The issue of ethnicity remains sensitive given Fiji’s recent coups and the misuse of the issue for a short term political gain could widen the already significant division between the two main ethnic groups.”