26 Mar 2013

Bainimarama eyes 2014 Fiji election victory

4:29 pm on 26 March 2013

Fiji's regime leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama has announced he will stand in next year's election and probably win.

Observers say his chances of success have been greatly enhanced by the regime's recently released draft constitution.

Sally Round reports.

On Friday Commodore Bainimarama went to test the running track at the country's newly renovated stadium in Suva.

But it was his running in the 2014 election that stole the headlines.

He told reporters he would contest the polls but he had yet to form a party.

The rumour mill has been grinding in Fiji for a while that Commodore Bainimarama was planning to run.

Fiji's budding National Youth Party is not surprised at the announcement.

A spokesman, Nayagodamu Korovou, says the group wrote to Commodore Bainimarama some time ago to ask if he would lead it in the next election.

He says the current government has done much to combat corruption and develop Fiji.

"If he wants to come into our party and be part of this new move for Fiji to develop our youth, and we know that he also believes in that, we open our doors and we welcome him to come and also join this party."

The NYP has signed up four thousand members so far and plans to apply for registration soon.

Mr Korovou says with Frank Bainimarama at the helm they have even more likelihood of success.

We are looking forward to working with them before the election or after the election. The way it is going it will make our party very strong. If the other political parties are not approved and our party is approved to stand then we are looking at the possibility that the majority of votes will come on our side.

Pacific Island politics expert Professor Jon Fraenkel says the regime's draft constitution looks like a recipe to keep the Commodore in power.

He says it's a significant departure from the proposals of Professor Yash Ghai's Constitution Commission, which were dumped by the regime.

The Yash Ghai draft set out provisions for a transitional council that would ensure that when the elections were held the incumbent military-led government didn't have the ability to dominate that election through public expenditure or through using various forms of influence. It tried to make sure the election would be held in a meaningful and free and fair way. All those have gone now. The prime minister and the cabinet remain in office right up until the day of the election. The president also remains in office.

But the regime's proposals require the Commodore to renounce his role as commander of the military as soon as he signs up to be an election candidate.

At present he has no formal opposition, as political parties of old have been forced to wind up or reregister under what some see as onerous new conditions.

And new parties have yet to throw their hats in the ring formally.

A constitutional lawyer, Shaista Shameem, feels the regime is withholding important information on political parties which will have a bearing on the election.

For example if there's only one political party that's been registered or allowed to be registered, because the deadline's passed, what is that political party? People need to know that in order to draft their responses in an appropriate way. Because you might just end up with a one party state.

Sitiveni Rabuka who succeeded in making the shift from coup maker to elected prime minister says the fact that there were interim arrangements in place made his transition more acceptable.

For me I handed over to an interim president. And all the executive authority I had I handed over. He acted independently in appointing an interim prime minister and they in concert put together a constitutional commission. In that case there was a clean break from Rabuka the soldier to Rabuka the aspiring politician.

Mr Rabuka says he's already made recommendations to the Ghai commission and says it could be futile to give his feedback on the latest arrangements.