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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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Fiji plans reform of 'divisive' electoral system
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-19 14:20 New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Tuesday that Bainimarama had "clutched at straws" to avoid the summit. All bilateral talks were being held on the forum host island of Niue, she said. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the decision to boycott the forum was a signal of the continuing threat to democracy in Fiji. "We in the South Pacific take democracy seriously, which is why we believe we can't sit idly by while our principles of democracy are shredded," he said in Auckland, shortly before flying to Niue. Bainimarama said Fiji would make decisions "as an independent and sovereign nation." "If we have to, we will seek assistance from outside the Pacific Forum and the Commonwealth" (which suspended Fiji from membership after the December 2006 military coup), he said. Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma is on Niue for the meeting. Even without Bainimarama, the summit will consider a report from six regional foreign ministers, including those from Australia and New Zealand, who visited Fiji in July and said only a lack of political will was delaying elections in the country, which has had four coups since 1987. Bainimarama attacked the report, which has not yet been made public, saying his government was "dismayed and disappointed" by its contents. "Should this forum, without reservation, endorse the MCG (ministerial contact group) report, then I am sorry to say we have reached the end of the road for Fiji to get genuine understanding of its situation and support for what we are trying to do," he said in his statement. The forum meets Tuesday through Thursday. |
