Richard Fowler, the President of the Wellington District Law Society, was in Fiji recently. Of his several observations, as reported by Kiwiblog, here are four :
"I have no problems with holding a referendum on a new constitution first, and then elections."[I'm not sure what he means by this. A referendum to change the Constitution and then hold elections based on the changes? Or a referendum binding on an incoming government elected under the present Constitution? Whichever, it's an interesting legal opinion]
On the NZ media's persistent insistence on a "pervasive military presence" in Fiji: "In the whole of the week I was in Suva I never caught sight of one soldier, and further the interim government during that week lost a very public Court challenge to the legitimacy of some of its actions and did not reach for extra-legal remedy."
But-- he thinks "the Commodore should have stood for election on the grounds of changing it, not done a coup." [Unfortunately, not really an option given Fiji's election system.]"
And "The problem is the Commodore is unable or unwilling to give any sort of timetable, to which he will be accountable. The longer it goes on, the more you suspect he will never give up power. The challenge for the Commodore is to turn rhetoric into reality and actually take steps towards elections. If he does so, then he will no doubt find sanctions start to get lifted. But if he doesn’t produce a timetable, then people will assume it is all about retaining power, not about changing the constitution."[A very reasonable comment but there has been progress and the PPDForum starting on 13 March is a further step towards elections.]
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