Fiji’s president revoked the politically unstable South Pacific nation’s constitution yesterday, named himself to temporarily replace a post-coup interim government and called for fresh elections by 2014.
Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo said he would soon appoint a new interim government but gave no firm timeframe. His actions come after an administration headed by military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama since a bloodless December 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 as a result of tensions between the majority indigenous Fijian population and the economically powerful ethnic Indian minority.
Iloilo’s plans will likely further harm Fiji’s international relations, already strained after Bainimarama went back on a promise to hold elections in the first quarter of this year.
Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth after Bainimarama’s 2006 coup. The US and EU imposed sanctions until the tourism- and sugar-reliant island nation held elections.
Bainimarama says Fiji must first change its racially based electoral system, which he blames for past instability.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this week urged Bainimarama to restore democracy, backing a demand by South Pacific leaders for elections this year.
Australia and New Zealand, Fiji’s main trading partners and biggest aid donors, have refused entry to any member of the Fiji military, government and their families since the 2006 coup.
Australia condemned Iloilo’s decision to abrogate the constitution and backed the appeal court’s ruling, which included a recommendation for prompt elections.
“This is the right course for Fiji and the only way forward for the people of Fiji,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in a statement yesterday.
Fiji should hold fresh elections by 2014, Iloilo said in a national broadcast from his presidential residence overlooking the harbor in the capital, Suva.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS