Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry has questioned the legitimacy of the Constitution amendment process, claiming it was rushed and MPs were not given enough time to properly read, analyse and debate the Bill.
Chaudhry questioned why there was a need to rush the process after what he says was little action on constitutional reform during the Government’s three and a half years in office.
He claims there must be an agenda behind the rushed process and says the Government made several mistakes in its haste.
Chaudhry also claims the Government treated the Supreme Court opinion as law without presenting a Bill to Parliament to convert the opinion into law.
He says they have challenged the legitimacy of the process from the beginning and intend to continue raising the matter as the process moves forward.
Chaudhry also criticised NFP Leader Professor Biman Prasad for supporting the Constitution Amendment Bill.
He referred to Prasad’s comments on 18th September that the NFP would not be part of any attempt to rush the implementation of a new Constitution, and described his subsequent support for the Bill as a turnaround.
Chaudhry says 38 MPs supported the Bill and claims Prasad’s support gave the Government the numbers it needed.
He also raised concerns about the amount of time MPs had to consider the Bill, saying the report was given to them late on Wednesday afternoon before Parliament sat throughout Thursday and into early Friday morning.
Chaudhry questioned when MPs had time to read, analyse and understand the Bill before it was tabled on Friday morning, saying it would have been impossible to have a meaningful debate in that timeframe.
He claims the lack of time for a full debate raises questions about the validity of the process.
The Bill has now been referred to a bipartisan parliamentary committee for 30 days to seek public views and prepare a report before the third reading.
Chaudhry says attention should also turn to the next general election, which he says Parliament has been told will be held before 6th February 2027 under the 2013 Constitution.
