SUVA, FIJI – Fiji’s president revoked the politically unstable South Pacific nation’s constitution yesterday, named himself to replace temporarily a post-coup interim government, and called for fresh elections by 2014.
President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who also sacked the judiciary, said he would appoint a new interim government soon, but gave no firm timeframe.
His moves come after an interim government, headed by military commander Cmdr Frank Bainimarama since a bloodless 2006 coup, was declared illegal by Fiji’s court of appeal on Thursday.
Fiji has suffered four coups and a bloody military mutiny since 1987, mainly because of tensions between the majority indigenous Fijian population and the economically powerful ethnic Indian minority.
Fijian media reported that information ministry officials had told them some emergency powers would be enforced under rules that allow security forces to prohibit and disperse public gatherings, impose curfews and close roads.
“Let me assure all of you that the basic human rights of all citizens shall be protected in the new legal order,” President Iloilo said.
“Let me also assure you that I have the full support of all our security forces,” the ageing and ailing president said in a national broadcast from his sprawling, colonial-era presidential residence overlooking the harbour in the capital, Suva.
Cmdr Bainimarama denied he had influenced Mr Iloilo’s decision to throw out the 1997 constitution after Thursday’s court decision rendered his government illegal under that document.
“I explained to him the result of the court case, the appeal, and I guess he came up with that on his own,” Cmdr Bainimarama told Radio Australia.
Mr Iloilo’s plans will further harm Fiji’s international relations, already strained after Cmdr Bainimarama went back on a promise to hold elections in the first quarter of 2009.
Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth after the December 2006 coup. The United States and European Union imposed sanctions until the tourism- and sugar-reliant island nation held elections.
Cmdr Bainimarama says Fiji must first change its racially based electoral system, which he blames for its instability.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton earlier this week urged Cmdr Bainimarama to restore democracy and backed a demand by South Pacific leaders for elections in Fiji this year.
Australia and New Zealand, Fiji’s main trading partners and aid donors, both condemned President Iloilo’s moves as “backwards” and backed the appeal court’s recommendation for prompt elections. The president said Fiji should hold fresh elections by 2014 to give the new interim administration time to make necessary reforms. – (Reuters)