This is to replace the 1997 constitution, which the military regime abrogated last April.
Australian National University’s Dr. Brij Lal said it’s an irony that on the day the commodore has announced his road map, he has also extended the emergency regulations.
“The country, since April this year has been ruled through decrees. And this is the way it’s going to be until 2014. So this is the sad part really, prolonging the suffering of the people unnecessarily,” Lal said.
An Australian-based NGO, the Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement, said the three-year delay before the country begins debating a new constitution is a charade to ensure the military regime prolongs its hold on power.
Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement’s spokesman Usaia Waqatairewa said there’s no explanation for such a delay, and he wouldn’t be surprised if the election date was put back further.
“It’s two and a half years that he has reigned as a dictator in Fiji is littered with reneges on promises, littered with lies, so I wouldn’t be surprised that come 2014 he says two years to put together a constitution was a too short a time period and now they’re going to extend it again.”
