Next Fijian general election

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Fiji
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Fiji

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After the military coup that occurred on 5 December 2006, it was announced that elections would be held "hopefully in 12 months, two years" by the new interim prime minister Jona Senilagakali.^[1] Later it was made clear that none of the ministers in the interim government would be allowed to contest the elections.^[2]

On 29 January 2007, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the coup leader and now the interim Prime Minister (having formally replaced Senilagakali on 6 January 2007) announced that the next election would be around five years away.^[3] He informed a visiting regional delegation on 30-31 January that elections would have to wait until a census had been complete, a new voters' roll compiled, and boundaries of electoral districts defined.^[4] Meanwhile, interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum suggested using electronic voting to shorten the period of time for counting votes (currently over ten days), and thereby reduce the potential for election rigging.^[5]

Later, Bainimarama announced that the election system would be changed to abolish the race-based constituencies and that elections would be held in 2010.^[6] It was later clarified that the interim administration has no mandate for electoral and constitutional reform, as such changes have to go through the parliamentary process; as such, the 2010 election will be held under the current race-based system, but Bainimarama stated he wished that the next government change the electoral system.^[7]

The deposed PM Laisenia Qarase stated he would contest the elections.^[8]

Fijian general elections