Pacific Ministers call on Fiji to hold elections

Fiji: South Pacific Foreign Ministers arrive in Fiji yesterday to press the island state's self-appointed prime minister and coup leader to hold democratic elections by March 2009 as promised.

"It is critical that Fiji return to democracy and a politically stable future," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in Canberra ahead of his departure for Fiji.

Fiji's military chief Frank Bainimarama staged a bloodless coup in December 2006, saying the then government was corrupt, and later appointed himself prime minister, promising to hold fresh elections in March 2009.

Bainimarama now says he cannot hold elections until Fiji's racially-based electoral system, which he blames for past instability in the coup-plagued nation, is changed. Fiji is racially divided with tensions between indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians, who control the business sector, and has been hit by four coups and an army mutiny since 1987. Smith said that the last visit by foreign ministers in July found that "the only thing preventing an election in Fiji was the political will of the Fiji interim government".

"Recent statements by the interim government indicating it does not intend to hold elections by March 2009, are deeply disappointing," Smith said in a statement.

The Pacific Islands Forum, which includes Australia and New Zealand, has threatened to expel Fiji if it does not hold fresh elections. Forum leaders will meet in Papua New Guinea in January to decide on Fiji's fate. New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said he expected to see positive moves towards a return to democracy in Fiji.

SUVA, Wednesday, Reuters