SUVA, Fiji (1 Sep 2001) -- Voting in Fiji's first post-coup election has finished, with the count due to begin on Monday. Fijians should find out next week who their new prime minister will be. If it is Mahendra Choudhry - the head of the powerful Labour Party who was deposed last year - special security arrangements will be introduced to make sure he stays safe and in office. One senior police officer, Superintendent Romanu Ticoticoca, said the police and the army together would be able to handle any problems. Election officials here say more than 83% of voters turned out to have their say at the ballot box. That is slightly down on the figure for the last poll in 1999. Seats in the new parliament are largely allocated on the basis of race. Of the 71 seats, 23 are reserved for the indigenous majority and 19 for ethnic Indians, who make up 44% of the population. Most of the remaining seats are open to anyone. The poll is being carried out under the country's multi-racial 1997 constitution, which almost perished with last year's coup. When the crisis ended, senior commanders installed a Fijian-dominated interim administration and wanted to draft a new document to water down the rights of ethnic Indians. | | Fijians battled long lines to cast votes That decision was reversed earlier this year by a panel of international judges, who upheld the constitution of 1997. The military-backed government was also declared illegal, prompting this week's election. Hard work ahead Whoever forms the new government will have a difficult job ahead. The economy took a real battering in the aftermath of the coup and output levels have not got back to where they were before the uprising. Nor has Fiji's international reputation fully recovered since democracy was swept away by nationalist rebels who stormed parliament in May 2000. The country is still suspended from key decision-making bodies of the Commonwealth, and limited sanctions remain in place. |
