Fiji agrees road map to elections

A report in The Dominion Post says that Fiji will hold elections in the first quarter of 2009, and self-appointed prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama has pledged that he and the military will accept the result.

The election will be held under the existing constitution, ruling out fears that signalled amendments might delay the outcome.

The announcement is a significant victory for the leaders meeting at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga and for the tough stance taken by New Zealand and Australia in facing down Commodore Bainimarama.

NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark said it was a good outcome, but sanctions would remain till there was evidence of results on the road map to elections.  “We need to see a road map, we need to see benchmarks met.”

She said the leaders would not have settled for anything less than an absolute commitment to the timetable for elections and that the result would be respected.

“We are satisfied with the outcome.”

The leaders had called for the preparation of a credible road map to be given the highest priority in the face of delays by Fiji’s interim government.

That would include Commodore Bainimarama accepting all contenders as candidates, including those from the previous ousted administration.

Miss Clark told The Dominion Post a restoration of full diplomatic representation was also pinned to the road map.

And she added that the forum “still have to keep Fiji’s feet to the fire” to ensure the undertakings were implemented.

“What he was confronted with today was that there was no sympathy anywhere in the forum that an election was not the top priority.”

Asked if she trusted Commodore Bainimarama to follow through on his undertakings, she said: “The proof of the pudding is going to be in the eating.”

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it was a very good outcome in dealing with a deep crisis.

Australia would provide $500,000 to help hold a census as a step toward an election.

Mr Downer said the lifting of sanctions would be based on conditions, not on time. 

The outcome was part of a seven-point decision on Fiji issued by forum chairman Fred Sivele, the Tongan Prime Minister, on behalf of all the leaders.

It included a meeting of foreign ministers in January to review progress. It calls for Fiji to work with a forum working group to plan the road map.

Earlier Australia, which had refused one-on-one talks with the Fiji coup leader, raised eyebrows by giving Commodore Bainimarama a lift in an Australian Air Force Hercules on the 45-minute flight from the Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa, to the leaders’ retreat on the northern island of Vavau.

Mr Downer said the decision was taken after problems with a charter flight. The Hercules carried all the forum leaders.

“If Commodore Bainimarama comes to the forum, we have dinner with him and we travel with him and we’re in the same room with him the whole time. So that’s just simply unavoidable.

“It would be petty in the extreme and reflect very badly on Australia if we had stopped them boarding the plane and said, ‘Get that man off, I’m not taking him.’

“I don’t think we should act like that with forum leaders.”

Report by The Mole