Chaudhry slams voting system, backs charter
Wednesday August 29, 2007

Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry says Fiji needs to move away from the race-based voting system if its people are to be united.

And he backs the interim Government's proposed People's Charter as a way to having a united and "a better Fiji".

Speaking to the Ministry of Information, Chaudhry said that Fiji's electoral system "is one of the reasons why we have racial politics because we select two thirds of our representatives to Parliament on communal dependency".

"We need to move away from that if we are to talk about a united Fiji," he said.

Chaudhry hopes that the political parties would commit themselves to the principles in the Charter, which would form the governance of our nation.

"We all know that in the last 20 years Fiji has gone through a number of coups, which has set us back. And as a nation we have not been able to unite the different races. Often the politicians have exploited this particular issue. They played the race card to destabilize the country and achieve their own personal agendas."

"We need to deal with what is fundamentally wrong with Fiji's politics. Why can't we come together as a nation, we (should) draw strength from our cultural diversity rather than exploiting it for political purposes. "

He said the whole purpose of setting up the National Council for Building a Better Fiji is to bring in the civil society from all works of life, to sit down, discuss and by consensus agree on a governance charter for Fiji.

"It will be something that they want, the people want and it should be by consensus," said Chaudhry.

The Methodist Church, Fiji Law Society, former ruling Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua and some of the 14 Fiji provincial councils have opposed the charter because it is proposed by an elected government.