Wednesday, August 20, 2014



How it works in Fiji

Fiji is having an election next month, but the regime is keen to limit the political competition any way they can. So they're banning people from running if they've ever had a parking ticket:

The leader of Fiji's United Freedom party Jagath Karunaratne says he has been rejected as a candidate for the elections because of a seven year old parking offence.

He was one of twelve nominees rejected as a candidate for the September polls by the Fijian Elections Office but he has appealed against the decision.

Mr Karunaratne says the decision was surprising because he paid the fine and the offence did not involve a jail term of more than a year.


Meanwhile, illegally overthrowing the government and tearing up the constitution are apparently no barrier to standing. Clearly Mr Karunaratne's problem is that his crimes just weren't big enough...