Fiji Elections: Two Men, Two Parties, Two Visions

PARLIAMENT UPDATE.  At  its first sitting, Dr Jiko Luweni was re-elected Speaker, Veena Bhatnagar Deputy, and  Sikiveni Rabuka Leader of the Opposition. He rejected the Standing Orders which decides parliamentary procedures, saying they removed the bipartisan approach, the right of the public to petition, and the right of the Opposition to chair the Public Accounts Committee.The orders were passed. FijiFirst has 27 seats and SODELPA-NFP 24. There are ten women MP's, the highest ever.

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In many Western democracies the major political parties that once represented a left and right wing have moved towards the centre. Not so in Fiji, on the country's most critical political issue, race, the centre is empty, although the emergence of two of the minor parties, Unity Fiji and HOPE, appear to have been steps in a centre direction. Unsurprisingly, despite their moderate policies and well known leaders, they failed to attract more than a handful of votes, and will probably not contest the next election.

Fiji is a deeply divided country whose leaders have two very different visions. Sixty years after Independence some colonial legacies remain and do not mix well with notions of "true" democracy.