Tuesday, February 02, 2016



Fiji: This is not a democracy

Fiji is supposed to be a democracy again. They had elections in 2014, which elected a multi-party Parliament. But how does it work in practice?

Badly. On Saturday, Biman Prasad, the leader of the National Federation Party, published an opinion piece in the Fiji Times asking whether Fiji's democracy was really working. And yesterday his party was suspended by the electoral commission - meaning it can no longer issue public statements or operate as a party - and it is being investigated by FICAC, the regime's "Independent" Commission Against Corruption, supposedly for failing to have its accounts audited by a registered accounting firm. Which, it turns out, aren't registered anyway. It has all the hallmarks of a brutal political stitchup, punishment for speaking out. And that's how "democracy" works in Fiji.