NZ's McCully sees good progress towards elections in Fiji

Transcript

The New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully says he's continuing to see good quality progress in Fiji towards elections.

Mr McCully is on his first visit to Suva since New Zealand lifted sanctions on the Fiji regime last month in recognition of progress towards the September polls.

Mr McCully told Sally Round New Zealand is putting money towards re-establishing the new parliament.

MURRAY MCCULLY: The progress in terms of the elections, planning work and the appointment of the necessary officers is of a high standard. We've got very experienced people from the New Zealand elections office in here helping and have had for many months. They have not only been doing good work. They've been able to give us a lot of comfort about the quality of the logistical arrangements that are being made for the elections. But of course we need to think just a little bit past the elections as well. We haven't had a democratic parliament operating here for eight years so we've been thinking about areas in which we could support the establishment of good institutions and improving public services. I've announced that we'll commit NZ$1.5 million (US$1.3 million) to a United Nations Development Programme-led project to support the re-establishment of the parliament. It's things like IT and Hansard for the new parliament and there'll be other capacity-building required there. We've seen some key government agencies from Fiji look to their New Zealand counterparts for support as they look to upgrade their capacities to ensure that the new democratic institutions are successful, so areas like the parliamentary clerks, the cabinet office, institutions around key government agencies, those are all areas in which I'd expect to see an increase in activity between New Zealand and Fijian counterparts and frankly it's one of the reasons that the sanctions had to be removed because we were seeing a strong desire for increased transfers and exchanges at a very senior level.

SALLY ROUND: Opposition politicians there are saying that if you were paying half the attention you should you'll know that the election process is anything but free or fair. Particularly in the last couple of weeks where we've seen the regime leader travelling the country openly campaigning.

MM: Look as I said before we need to acknowledge that not everyone's going to share the reasonably optimistic view that I'm expressing but I think the most important goal is to get the elections actually held. That is a huge step forward. There may be some constraints around the formation of political parties but we do have four established and one new one being formed by Mr Bainimarama himself. We are seeing the campaigns start to take shape and it's not just the Prime Minister who's in campaign mode at the moment.

SR: But how can it be free and fair if he is not even abiding by the rules that he has set for other political parties i.e. that they must be registered first?

MM: I'm not going to get into a sort of critique of the way in which the electoral rules are being enforced. What I will say is the fact that we are seeing a six month process towards elections in which the machinery is working, so political parties are being formed, is a big step forward from where we were and I believe that the improvements will continue if New Zealand stays engaged in the process. I know that there are people who say that this election is a done deal. I don't agree with that, I think it's going to be quite a competitive space for a while. I'm certainly not prejudging the outcome so I'm one of those who's taking a more optimistic view but I acknowledge there are different views.

SR: But surely one of the things is it has to be free and fair in the run up and you must surely be setting some kind of key indicators for yourself as to whether that will be free and fair.

MM: Well as I say we've managed to see, despite the significant requirements for the registration of parties, we've seen four formed already, we're seeing the fifth coming very soon and you know we are seeing a much more competitive space in terms of political debate and dialogue.

SR: Do you really think it is competitive? There has been some real concern in the last few weeks about media and the restrictions they're under, also that the NGOs that are trying to get through some civic education are also under increasing restrictions. Do you think that that is a problem?

MM: Look I think that there are people who will hold a different view and there are certainly NGOs who hold a different view but I think that if they reflect on this carefully they'll agree that having an election date set, machinery that is going to deliver an election and an improving space for political debate leading up to the election, those are all significant gains on where we've been for a long time. We need to give due credit for that and to make sure that we work with the administration at improving all of those aspects and that is what the New Zealand government is trying to do.