Fiji govt outlines constitutional changes
Updated
Fiji can expect a new look parliament after the 2014 elections, according to recent announcements by the country's military leader.
The military government will implement a number of changes, including a smaller parliament and a salary increase for Parliamentarians.
Presenter:Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Fiji's interim attorney-general
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SAYED-KHAIYUM: Under the 1997 constitution there are 71 member parliament, yet we have a population of less than 900,000 people. New Zealand which is unicameral system has 120 people with a population of four million. So we need to put that into perspective. Isn't it better to have lesser number of people, pay them well, you attract a good calibre of people, you resource them well so the level of debate and research is a lot better. The constitution itself must have at least three characteristics. They must be equal suffrage. In otherwords, the value of votes across the constituencies must be as universally accepted. They should not be ethnic or communal based voting. In otherwords, we have the principle of common citizenry and equal citizenry and that everybody must be voted along those lines without any ethnic classification. The third feature he said also was that the voting age should be 18. So what he said that all these features and the division and the principles actually go towards forming a modern nation state, dealing with a globalised world, and indeed that would create a modern day Constitution.
COUTTS: But do you know what the parliament will look like? You mentioned unicameral before, will it be unicameral, bicameral. Do you know what it will look like once the modern constitution is implemented?
SAYED-KHAIYUM: The issue whether it should be unicameral or bicameral that's something that's for consultation processes. What really needs to be discussed is what size of the parliament should be. If you, for example, do have two Houses, what would be the size of it. If you have one House what would be the size of it, in particular given our population levels and you can obviously look at international conditions, and do some international comparisons on that basis also.
COUTTS: So have you got any idea of the size and what you will be basing it on? Are there other models that you might be looking at to use as an example during the consultation process?
SAYED-KHAIYUM: Well, I don't want to pre-empt what should be the outcome, but what I can also refer you to is that in the NCBBF (National Council for Building a Better Fiji) there are various recommendations and that the parliament size should be reduced that the House of Representative size should be reduced from somewhere between 15 per cent to 25 per cent. Now that's obviously open for consultations and discussions when the time does arise which is September 2012.
