The Constitution Review Commission Report will be tabled in a special Parliament sitting next Tuesday.
Minister for Information, Lynda Tabuya says the Speaker's Office has confirmed 22nd September at 11.30am for the special sitting.
When we had asked Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka after the presentation of the Constitution Review Commission Report to the President, he had said that "we are on a roll. We will have further deliberations before Parliament considers the Bill starting on 28th September."
fijivillage News has been informed that the first and second readings of the Constitution Amendment Bill will be done at the end of this month after the report is tabled next Tuesday.
The Bill will also confirm what the government has decided to amend in the 2013 Constitution after assessing the recommendations of the Constitution Review Commission.
The commission's report is yet to be made public.
As earlier reported by fijivillage News, the Constitution Review Commission has recommended a 41 seat House of Representatives or Parliament with 26 constituencies.
26 MPs are to be elected under the first past the post system and 15 through the proportional representation system.
The Commission confirmed that it has not recommended any reserved seats for women or ethnic groups.
All will be Open seats.
The Review Commission is also recommending a 19 seat Senate.
The Commission is also recommending that the election of the country's President be done by a 6 member Presidential Appointment Committee.
The nominees for the President can be made by the Boselevu Vakaturaga, the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, the Council of Churches and the inter-faith group.
Religious freedom is also guaranteed in the Draft Constitution.
The Commission has also recommended that FICAC should be an investigative body and the prosecution of the cases to be handled by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Some of the other recommendations arising from the 2013 Constitution review are the reinstatement of the Boselevu Vakaturaga; the reinstatement of the Public Service Commission to oversee the Public Service and personal matters of public servants; the continued use of “Fijian” as the national identity with a caveat that a consultative process is to be utilised so that people of Fiji can decide what their common or national identity should be, among other things.
The Supreme Court has already advised that the 2013 Fijian Constitution can be amended by the support of two thirds of Members of Parliament and a majority of those registered voters who vote for the change in a referendum after the parliamentary vote.
The National Referendum Bill is yet to be passed by Parliament.
Fiji has never had a referendum, and the Fijian Elections Office will need the Referendum Bill passed to move towards holding a referendum with the relevant questions to the voters if two thirds of MPs vote for the Constitution Amendment Bill.
Stay with us for developments.
