General elections were held in Fiji between 6 and 13 May 2006.
The incumbent Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua government, led by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, was re-elected for a third term in government, opposed by the Labour Party, led by Mahendra Chaudhry, as well as several other minor parties. However, Qarase was later removed from office following a coup d'état.
Background.
The 1997 Constitution of Fiji required general elections for the House of Representatives to be held at least once every five years. Acting President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi issued a proclamation on 2 March 2006, effective from 27 March, dissolving Parliament. The previous parliamentary term had been due to expire on 1 October 2006.
The Writ of Elections was issued on 28 March; candidates filed their nominations on 11 April and published their preference lists on the 13th, while voter registration closed on 4 April.
Electoral boundary adjustments.
A major issue to be resolved ahead of the election was that of constituency boundaries. With the constitution requiring the 25 open constituencies and 29 of the 46 communal constituencies to be substantially equal in population, the Constituency Boundaries Commission, chaired by Barrie Sweetman, explored possible changes. Time constraints made the matter an urgent one, he said on 21 November. The elections office also revealed that any changes to electoral boundaries would require a reregistration of all voters affected, further complicating the exercise. A final decision was expected by the end of November 2005, but this was delayed.
Sweetman announced on 6 February 2006 that with the elections so close, boundaries might not be changed at all. Unless there was pressure from political parties, the commission would meet in the next week to decide the matter, he said.
The Commission ruled on 24 February that there would be no changes to electoral boundaries, citing lack of time before the forthcoming elections. Changes could be made only following a census, the last of which was held in 1996; current population data was too old, Sweetman said. The commission called for a review of census laws, suggesting an interval of five years rather than the current ten.
Election characterised by ethnic politics.
Elections in Fiji at the time were characterised by two fundamental realities.
Depending on ideological, demographic, and electoral factors, parties may seek to consolidate their position in communal constituencies (reserved by ethnicity) by forging alliances with other parties appealing to the same ethnic group, or improve their position in open constituencies (elected by universal suffrage) by entering into alliances with parties that appeal to different ethnic groups. There are 46 communal constituencies (23 reserved for indigenous Fijians, 19 for Indo-Fijians, 1 for Rotuman Islanders, and 3 for minorities such as Caucasians, Chinese, and Banaban Islanders), and 25 open constituencies.
Coalition politics.
A record of 25 parties had registered for the 2006 election, as of early March. Most of the major parties led by indigenous Fijians have formed a coalition, tentatively known as the Grand Coalition Initiative Group, in an attempt to consolidate the indigenous vote; the coalition appears certain to be dominated by the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL), which the nucleus of the present ruling coalition of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. (A smaller party, the Conservative Alliance (CAMV) was part of the ruling coalition and of the Grand Coalition, but was dissolved and merged into the SDL in early March).
On the other hand, intense rivalry between the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) of former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and the National Federation Party, the two main parties with significant Indo-Fijian support, appears to make any alliance between them problematic. Both have expressed interest in forming a multi-racial alliance with the National Alliance Party (NAPF) of Ratu Epeli Ganilau (an avowedly multiracial party) and the United Peoples Party (UPP) of Mick Beddoes, which appeals mostly to minority groups. On 16 October, the UPP announced that negotiations to form an electoral pact with the FLP had been concluded, and the decision to go ahead had been endorsed by the UPP executive the day before. On 2 December, the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to draw up a joint manifesto and to exchange preferences, but leaving both parties free to contest any or all of the 71 seats separately, or to field joint candidates by mutual agreement. The memorandum also left open the possibility of other parties joining the coalition.
SDL Executive Director Jale Baba had earlier said that the deal between the FLP and the UPP had been expected, and that the SDL did not see it as a threat. He also said that it was possible that the SDL might form partnerships with parties not involved with the Grand Coalition.
Consultations have also taken place between both parties and the NAPF, with Ganilau announcing on 17 October that a decision on whether or not to forge an electoral pact with the FLP and UPP would be announced after a meeting of party executives. On 29 November, however, he said that the NAPF wanted to keep its options open and would hold negotiations with all political parties, including the SDL, before reaching a final decision.
The Party of National Unity (PANU), which was re-registered in January 2006 following its dissolution a few months earlier, announced on 27 January that it would be giving its first preference to the FLP, and would also cooperate with the NAPF and the UPP. PANU, a multi-racial party based in Ba Province, had previously aligned itself with the FLP-dominated People's Coalition in the 1999 election.
Crossing the faultline.
The two major political parties, the SDL and the FLP, are both attempting to break out of their ethnic cocoons. The SDL, which presently has only one Indo-Fijian in its Parliamentary caucus and attracted less than one percent of the Indo-Fijian vote in 2001, has announced that it will contest all 19 communal constituencies reserved for Indo-Fijians, with General Secretary Jale Baba saying that the party is "confident" of winning most of them. The FLP, for its part, is hoping to win some of the 23 communal seats reserved for indigenous Fijians for the first time. Although founded in the mid-1980s by Timoci Bavadra, an indigenous Fijian, it lost most of its indigenous support in the 1990s and attracted barely two percent of the indigenous vote in 2001, which saw only two indigenous candidates elected on the FLP ticket, neither from a Fijian communal constituency.
Both parties have expressed optimism about their gambits, with Prime Minister Qarase saying on Radio Sargam (affiliated to Fiji Village) on 5 October that the SDL expected to win an absolute majority in the 71-member House of Representatives, and regarded as many as 50 seats as a real possibility.
Calls for restraint in rhetoric.
Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes spoke out on 30 September to call on politicians to avoid using hate speech in the run-up to the election. He said the police would prosecute anyone who appealed for votes on the basis of hate or fear.
United Peoples Party leader Mick Beddoes similarly called on party leaders to exert better control over members making public statements, while Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua General Secretary Jale Baba said that the making of hate speeches by any member of the party would never be tolerated.
On 26 November 2005, Electoral Commission Chairman Graeme Leung proposed a Code of Conduct prohibiting political parties from using inflammatory language, and from appealing to racial, religious, regional, or gender divisions. False and defamatory allegations would be banned, as would calls inciting violence or hatred. Disruption of meetings and political rallies would also be proscribed. Leung called on all political parties to adopt the code of conduct and said that ideally, it should be enshrined in legislation. Many politicians welcomed the proposed code, with FLP Deputy Leader Poseci Bune calling it long overdue. Mick Beddoes supported it also, but cautioned that it would work only if persons breaching it were disciplined for doing do. Cabinet Minister Simione Kaitani, while endorsing the proposal in general, said the prohibition against appealing to racial divisions was "unrealistic," as politics was based to such a great extent on race. National Alliance Party President Ratu Epeli Ganilau also welcomed the code of conduct and called for legislation to effect it, but said it would be hard to enforce it.
Calls for restrained language have not always been heeded. Closer to the election, the main political leaders traded accusations of "terrorism." Prime Minister Qarase called Opposition Leader Mahendra Chaudhry a "terrorist" on 15 February 2006, for allegedly using his travels abroad to discredit the government and discourage investment. According to the Fiji Sun, he was responding to claims made by Chaudhry at the FLP campaign launch in Ba Town on the 11th that the government itself was full of terrorists, but said that he would not be suing Chaudhry because he did not want to "waste time" on him. Chaudhry then reacted by saying that the Qarase government was full of terrorists. "There are people in his Government, ministers, who have been convicted of offences relating to the May 2000 coup," he said. He claimed that Qarase had won the 2001 elections by vote-buying and by hiding from the voters the role that many of his candidates had allegedly played in the 2000 coup.
Also on the 15th, Fiji Television quoted the Prime Minister as saying that Chaudhry was "unstable" and unfit to lead the country.
Speaking to Fiji Live on 16 February, the Prime Minister challenged Chaudhry to produce the evidence for his allegations that there are terrorists serving in the government; if such proof existed, he should refer it to the police. He reiterated that he did not want to waste time pursuing the matter legally.
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase announced on 2006-03-01 that the 2006 general elections would be held in the second week of May from the 6th to the 13th. (Radio New Zealand)
Demographic changes.
Fiji Television reported on 26 January 2006 that electoral registration of Indo-Fijians was down by more than twelve percent on 2001 figures, reflecting the high rate of emigration from that community. Although guaranteed 19 communal constituencies, the latest statistics would make it more difficult for Indo-Fijian-dominated parties to win many of the 25 open constituencies, which are elected by universal suffrage, the report said.
Vice-President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi expressed concern about this trend on 8 February, saying that it would lead to electoral disparity, and Robbie Robertson, Professor and Director of Development Studies at the University of the South Pacific, said that the Indo-Fijian share of the electorate this year would be only 40 percent of the total voting population, an all-time low.
Military spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni said on 19 February that the election should be postponed until a national census could be conducted. He reiterated earlier concerns about redrawing electoral boundaries when no census had been conducted, saying that compromised the fairness of the election. Constituency Boundaries Commission Chairman Barry Sweetman, however, said that the Military should have raised the matter while the committee was taking submissions. There has been no census since 1996; the one due in 2006 has been postponed till 2007 because of the elections.
Contesting parties.
By 13 March 2006, a total of 24 parties had registered to contest the election. This list included some newcomers, as well as some parties that had been deregistered and subsequently reregistered. These included the Coalition of Independent Nationals (COIN), which applied for reregistration on 13 March.
Campaign.
Controversy erupted early in March 2006, with the ruling SDL being criticised by some for distributing funds, through the Duavata Initiative Trust, to needy people, allegedly in an attempt to buy votes. Campaign coordinator Jale Baba told Fiji Live that the charity was not bribery and that the party had, in fact, been raising money for the poor since 2002. On 8 March, Director of Public Prosecutions Josaia Naigulevu and Commissioner of Police Andrew Hughes confirmed to the Fiji Times that the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) had lodged a complaint about the scheme, and that police were looking into it.
Prime Minister Qarase was reported by Fiji Television on 6 March 2006 as saying that the economy had performed well under his government's stewardship, and that citizens could expect further strong economic growth and increased wages if his government was returned to office.
On 7 March, University of the South Pacific (USP) Vice-Chancellor Anthony Tarr found himself fending off criticism from Fiji Labour Party (FLP) President Jokapeci Koroi for accepting an invitation