29 Oct 2005

Row brewing over constituency boundaries ahead of Fiji election

7:16 am on 29 October 2005

A row is developing in Fiji over the constituency boundaries to be used for the 71 seats in the House of Representatives in next year's general election.

Although the Boundaries Commission won't meet until next week, Fiji TV says there'll be no changes to boundaries.

It quotes the commission chairman, Barrie Sweetman, as saying he's least interested in the concerns being raised by political parties.

But the president of the National Federation Party, Raman Pratap Singh, says there have been major shifts of population, especially from Vanua Levu and other cane-growing areas where land leases have expired and the economy has declined.

Mr Singh says the constitution requires fair and equitable representation of the population in parliament, and the boundaries need to be changed to reflect this.

He says unless the changes are made, the NFP will take the Boundaries Commission to court.