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.
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