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Coup-plagued Fiji goes to the polls; heavy rain affects voting

2018-11-16

[DAWN] Fiji’s second election since a 2006 military takeover ‐ pitting one coup leader against another ‐ passed off peacefully on Wednesday, although heavy rain dampened voter turnout in the Pacific island nation. The ballot sees Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, the former military chief who led a bloodless takeover of the government 12 years ago, face off against another coup leader, Sitiveni Rabuka of the SODELPA Party. Bainimarama’s FijiFirst Party, which secured a landslide 59 per cent in the last election four years ago, is favourite to retain office against a fractured opposition. Bainimarama, 64, has promised stability and an end to the "coup culture" that saw four governments toppled between 1987 and 2006. Rabuka, who staged two coups in 1987 and led the country from 1992-99, was only cleared to run in the election on Monday after defeating corruption charges that government critics said were politically motivated.

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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

California gov named special adviser to UN climate conference

2017-06-14

[The Hill] California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on Tuesday was named a special adviser to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, later this year. The appointment by Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama came less than two weeks after President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the 195-nation Paris climate accord. Dozens of business executives, mayors and governors including Brown have vowed to uphold the country's commitment to the agreement, despite Trump's decision to withdraw. Brown has become a high-profile advocate for climate action on the world stage in recent weeks. The California governor traveled to China last week where he spoke with President Xi Jinping about climate change and signed bilateral climate deals.

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Down Under

Fiji's ex-coup leader heads for poll victory

2014-09-21

[Al Jazeera] Frank Bainimarama, a former coup leader, is on the verge of becoming Fiji's first elected leader in eight years, as international observers give the ballot a stamp of approval. With 70 percent of the vote counted as of Thursday, the incumbent prime minister's Fiji First Party had 60.1 percent, well clear of its nearest rival, the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) on 26.7 percent. "This was a credible election," said a statement from the 92-member panel drawn from 13 countries around the world as well as the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... "While counting is ongoing and the results are yet to be finalised, we assess that the outcome is on track to broadly represent the will of the Fijian voters." The election was conducted "in an atmosphere of calm, with an absence of electoral misconduct or evident intimidation". Australia and New Zealand, who led global condemnation of Bainimarama following the coup, described the ballot as a "significant event". "All early indications are that the conditions were in place for the people of Fiji to exercise their right to vote freely," Murray McCully, New Zealand's foreign minister, said. Although Bainimarama was accused of human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... abuses and the Pacific nation subjected to international sanctions after he seized control in a 2006 coup, Brij Lal, a Fiji political analyst based at the Australian National University, said the outcome was no surprise. "He had all the advantages of incumbency, name recognition, a public profile, media on his side, campaigning on the public purse, and a desire on the part of the voters for stability, which he promised," Lal told AFP news agency.

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Down Under

Eight Australian Freemasons spend a night in the cells in Fiji

2009-07-16

EIGHT Australians spent a night in jail charged with sorcery after Fijian police raided a Freemasons meeting. Frightened villagers called police after they saw the group's equipment, which is believed to have included a sword, mace and Bible. The Australians were among 14 men who were arrested and then freed after Fijian military dictator Frank Bainimarama granted them an official pardon. The Primie Minister intervened after the group contacted the Fijian Attorney-General's office. The group was held at Nasudi police station for 24 hours after their arrest at Denarau Island on Tuesday night until they received news of the top-level intervention. "An officer came in and said, 'We have been ordered by the prime minister's department to release you, however, the matter will still remain under investigation', and the Prime Minister himself is coming to the office later in the day to review the evidence," a member of the group, who didn't want to be named, said. A New Zealand man, who was also among the group, blamed "dopey village people" for the raid on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed 14 people, including the eight Australians, were detained for convening a Masonic meeting without the right permit.

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Down Under

Fiji virtually a military dictatorship: Rudd

2009-04-12

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has condemned Commodore Frank Bainimarama's reappointment as Fiji's Prime Minister, saying the country is now "virtually a military dictatorship". Commodore Frank Bainimarama was sworn in again as Prime Minister in Fiji, after the country's President abolished the constitution and sacked the country's judiciary over a court ruling which found the 2006 military coup was illegal. "Australia condemns unequivocally this action by the military ruler of Fiji to turn this great country into virtually a military dictatorship, with the suspension of freedom of the press and actions which undermine prosperity for the ordinary people," Mr Rudd said. The Federal Government is mulling sanctions on the country, which says it will now not hold elections for another five years. Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Crean says democracy must be returned to the country as soon as possible. "This will not help the economy of Fiji [which] has been suffering ever since the military took over a couple of years ago," Mr Crean said. "All the President's done is tear up the Constitution - clearly he's acting in defiance of the law. "It is getting to the stage of simply determining things day by day and this can't be good for stability, it can't be good for the future of Fiji, it can't be good for its people." Mr Crean says Fiji may face expulsion from the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum, of which Australia is part. Fiji's newly reappointed Government, led by military leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has ordered tougher censorship of the local media. The Permanent Secretary for Information has been given near total control over what is printed or broadcast in Fiji. On Friday, Major Neumi Leweni sent his Information Officers, police and soldiers into the newsrooms of the Suva's local media to check on the stories they were intending to run. He has now extended that control, informing the local media in a letter that they should refrain from publishing and broadcasting any news item that is negative in nature relating to recent political developments. This includes the President's assumption of executive authority on Good Friday and yesterday's appointment of Commodore Bainimarama as Fiji's Prime Minister for five years. Commodore Bainimarama says he hopes everyone will follow the restrictions. "We must all be loyal to Fiji - we must be patriotic," he said. "The necessary regulations are in force. I'm sure we will all, including the media, cooperate with the relevant agencies."

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Down Under

Fiji rejects Pacific Islands Forum's further sanctions demand

2009-01-28

WELLINGTON, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Fiji on Tuesday rejected the need for further sanctions, saying the country was not in crisis and was determined to complete electoral reform before holding elections. The Pacific Islands Forum leaders special meeting, held in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, gave Fiji a deadline of May 1 to announce an election date. Elections must be held by the end of the year. If the Fiji interim government does not meet the terms, its leader, ministers and officials will be suspended from all meetings of the forum, the Pacific leaders said in a statement. Fiji will also be prevented from receiving benefits that come from belonging to the forum, including new financial aid. Fiji's interim attorney general Aiyaz Saiyed Khaiyum, a special envoy of interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama, put Fiji's case to the leaders in Port Moresby. Saiyed Khaiyum on Tuesday questioned the forum's right to impose further sanctions and said electoral reform rather than timelines are his country's priority. "There is no crisis in Fiji at the moment," he said. "You have a government in place that's been held to be legally and validly appointed by His Excellency our president (by) a three member panel of the High Court. So we do not understand what the crisis is," Radio New Zealand quoted him as saying. Khaiyum said he spoke to Bainimarama after the meeting. Fiji was determined to complete electoral reform before holding elections, he said. He told reporters democracy was about more than elections and Fiji did not have universal suffrage. The country wanted "long-term and sustainable" democracy which "seems lost on some people," Radio New Zealand reported on Wednesday. He said the new Presidential Political Dialogue Forum would look at reform issues and once an electoral system was decided on elections would take a further 12 to 15 months. Khaiyum disputed the forum's right to take steps against Fiji which only allowed action if there was a crisis. Since Fiji's president ruled the interim administration was valid, backed up by a high court ruling, there was no crisis, he said. He accused Australia and New Zealand of hurting innocent citizens through sanctions -- especially a ban on travel for officials and government figures.

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Down Under

Fijian armed police unit disbanded

2007-02-06

Fiji's sole armed police unit - the elite Tactical Response Division - is no longer operational on the orders of the military-appointed police commissioner. A statement says the unit was disbanded on February 1. "Lately the functions of the unit appeared to have been compromised when it was used for other purposes for which it was (not) intended," the statement said. "When its leader came under heavy suspicion by the (military) and its members showed overt signs of indiscipline, the division was disbanded by the Commissioner of Police (Colonel Jim Koroi)." The military have made no secret of wanting the unit disbanded, and just hours before the police statement, a senior army officer said the unit had no significance and should be done away with. Relations between the military and the police have long been strained and on the eve of the military coup in early December, soldiers moved into the police barracks and disarmed the elite unit. Within days of seizing power, military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama sacked then police commissioner, Australian Andrew Hughes, amid claims Mr Hughes was "arming Fijians against Fijians," and replaced him with Colonel Koroi. The police confirmation that the tactical response unit had been disbanded came as military Land Force Commander Colonel Pita Driti told the Fijilive website that it was not appropriate for the police to have such a division. "We want them to be removed because it's not appropriate for the police to have the unit and it's just a waste of taxpayers' money," he said.

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Down Under

Fiji coup leader sworn in as PM

2007-01-05

The leader of a coup in Fiji, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has been sworn in as interim prime minister, one month after overthrowing the government. Cmdr Bainimarama deposed prime minister Laisenia Qarase and named himself the country's president. However, Cmdr Bainimarama on Thursday returned executive authority to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo. An interim government is to be appointed and is expected to be dominated by the military. It will remain in power until elections. Mr Bainimarama said at a short swearing-in ceremony on Friday: "In all things, I will be a true and faithful prime minister." Mr Qarase remains banished on an outlying island.

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Down Under

Fiji's powerful chiefs reject coup leader's claim to power

2006-12-15

SUVA, Fiji: Fiji's powerful tribal chiefs on Friday refused to recognize last week's military takeover, and said they would hold consultations next week with the ousted prime minister on the country's future. Great Council of Chiefs chairman Ratu Ovini Bokini said the group still considers one of its members, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, to be Fiji's president — a direct challenge to armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama's claim to have seized presidential powers on Dec. 5. "That is a non-issue," Bokini said of Iloilo's status. "He's still the president." The opposition of the chiefs, who hold constitutional power to appoint the president and have huge influence among the South Pacific island nation's indigenous Fijian majority, is a stumbling block for Bainimarama's plans.

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Down Under

Military takes hard line in the face of dissent

2006-12-11

FIJI'S military rulers are cracking down on dissent, making house calls on those who dare criticise the new regime. Only a night after their illegal takeover last Tuesday, the army was flexing its muscles -- well before yesterday's declaration it would interrogate anyone suspected of inciting opposition to the new regime. Former minister Kenneth Zinck, who called Commodore Frank Bainimarama a coward in a roomful of people on Wednesday night, was arrested shortly after and forced at gunpoint to jog around the parade ground at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks. Mr Zinck said he was also made to stand under a bright light while his interrogators stood behind him so he could not see their faces, before being released with a warning. "(They) warned me not to speak out against their commander again and for me to watch out," he said. Critical letter writers to the country's main newspaper, The Fiji Times, have found soldiers knocking on their doors, warning them not to criticise the new regime. "They picked me up from work and took me down to the base here in Nadi," one letter writer told The Fiji Times. "They asked me about my letters and said that this was a verbal warning." The man said that the soldiers were courteous and told him they were acting under orders from Suva. On Saturday night a house just outside Suva, strung with pro-democracy banners, had its windows smashed and the signs torn down. "We had some eyewitnesses who said they were in civilian clothing," said democracy campaigner Petrina Zinck, the daughter of Kenneth Zinck. The young pro-democracy campaigners had been told by the military to pull down the banners but had refused. The military have denied having anything to do with the attack. That's how you know when a coup has failed: when the coup plotters deny committing acts of terror on those who oppose them. Talk to Pinochet (ooops, can't now) about this; when he staged his coup, his boyz went door to door, kicked ass, rounded up the opposition and tossed them into soccer stadiums for further processing. And he didn't care one whit who knew it.

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Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs maintains Ratu Iloilo is still legal president

2006-12-07

Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs, the GCC, maintains that Ratu Josefa Iloilo is still the legal president and head of state of Fiji. This comes a day after the military commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, made himself acting president and unsuccessfully sought the resignation of the prime minister. Commodore Bainimarama then announced that he had dissolved parliament and made new appointments. Soldiers also removed the vice president, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, from his office and his official residence yesterday. The head of the Council of Chiefs, Ratu Ovini Bokini, said that the removal was illegal. “Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi is a fine Chief and highly respected member of the legal profession, a former High Court Judge who is legally and unanimously appointed by the Chiefs. Ratu Joni’s removal from office is illegal and unconstitutional and disrespectful.” Ratu Ovini Bokini says there is concern that the military may also attempt to remove the president, Ratu Josefa Iloilo from his residence after Government House issued a statement which failed to approve the military take-over. Ratu Ovini also says the GCC has called on all soldiers to "lay their arms down, return to barracks" and carry out their normal duties. And, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Helen Clark, has again called on Fijian military officers to ask the commander, coup leader Frank Bainimirama, to step down.

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Down Under

PM leaves Fiji's capital for post-coup army rule

2006-12-06

Fiji's ousted prime minister left the capital Wednesday, the day after a bloodless coup, as international sanctions and censure began isolating the South Pacific country. Armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama's plan to install a caretaker government that would eventually restore democracy ran into an immediate snag when the country's powerful tribal chiefs' council canceled a meeting that was a key part of it. Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase flew out of Suva to his home village on the remote northeastern Lau group of islands after spending the night in his city residence surrounded by troops, said Pene Nonu, his private secretary. Qarase, who insists he is still Fiji's legitimate leader, chartered the plane, but left at the request of the military, Nonu said.

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