TONGA: Fiji promises elections by March 2009
Updated
Fiji's interim Prime Minster Frank Bainimarama has promised the Pacific Island Leaders Meeting in Tonga, that his country will go to elections by March 2009. Earlier this year Fiji's interim regime agreed in principal that elections could be held by that date and now that date can be set in stone - a commitment that has been warmly welcomed by other leaders.
Presenter: Campbell Cooney
Speakers: Feleti Sevele, Forum Chairman & Tongan Prime Minister; Helen Clark, NZ Prime Minister; Aiyez Sayed-Kayum, Fiji's interim Attorney General
SEVELE: The leaders endorsed the findings of the Eminent Persons Group, a report following its mission to Fiji and the outcomes of the Forum Foreign Ministers meeting in March in Vanuatu as an appropriate way forward. Welcome the undertaking by the leader of the Fiji interim government to the Forum leaders today that a parliamentary election will be held in the first quarter of 2009. And note that he also stated to Forum leaders that he and the RFMF will accept the outcome of the elections in the first quarter of 2009. Note that the interim government is pursuing an initiative to produce a people's charter, express appreciation for the support which members of the international community have afforded to the Forum's actions in the raising a pathway to elections by the first quarter of 2009, and finally call for a meeting of the Forum foreign ministers in January next year to review the progress being made towards the election in the first quarter of 2009. That is the seven point decision of the Forum arrived at today.
COONEY: Joining the Tongan Prime Minister were the two biggest critics of Fiji's interim regime, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Prime Minister Clark described the discussion which led to the decision.
CLARK: So there's been frank discussion and the leaders would not have settled for anything less than an absolute acceptance of the timetable for no later than the first quarter of 2009. It was also very important to leaders that we got a commitment given to us in the meeting that the outcome of the election will be respected, and thirdly it was important that there be a credible roadmap now developed by the Fiji interim government in conjunction with the Forum Joint Working Group on that credible roadmap through to the elections. And that this must be done according to the constitution and law of Fiji.
COONEY: But will just a commitment to change mean Australia and New Zealand will drop its travel bans?
The ban on visits to both countries by members and families of Fiji's interim government and military, has been the one thing Commodore Bainimarama, and members of his cabinet have continually attacked. Helen Clark:
CLARK: It depends when the credible roadmap is produced, it would be rather nice if it was produced before January '08 although that might be optimistic, but it's a question of when is that credible roadmap produced and when are the benchmarks in it set.
DOWNER: To use a famous phrase, our lifting of sanctions will be conditions-based, not time-based.
COONEY: Accompanying Commodore Bainimarama at this year's meeting is his interim Attorney General Aiyez Sayed-Kayum.
SAYED-KAYUM: Yeah I mean I think we have said right from the beginning we had agreed in principle to the outcome of the Forum Working Group in respect of holding elections in the first quarter. This I suppose we have now making a further commitment if you like in terms of the commitment to the holding of elections. We obviously came into this meeting with the understanding that we needed to put in place various machineries in place.
