The Centre for Democracy and Dialogue says its preliminary analysis of the Fiji Government's Constitution Amendment Bill shows significant changes from the Constitution Review Commission’s draft, including the removal or weakening of several democratic and accountability safeguards.
Centre for Democracy and Dialogue Chief Executive Officer Nilesh Lal says while the Constitution Amendment Bill retains some of the broad structure of the Constitution Review Commission's Draft Bill, it does not meaningfully address what the Centre for Democracy and Dialogue considers the excessive concentration of power in the Executive under the 2013 Constitution.
Lal says the Government's Constitution Amendment Bill removes the proposed limit on the Prime Minister’s tenure and the limit on the size of Cabinet as proposed by the Review Commission.
The CRC Amendment Bill proposed that Cabinet consist of the Prime Minister and up to 14 Ministers and that a person could not serve as Prime Minister more than twice.
However, under Section 110 of the Constitution Amendment Bill, the Prime Minister would determine the number of Ministers.
Lal says another significant change concerns the Constitutional Offices Commission.
He says the CRC Amendment Bill proposed a five-member COC appointed through an independent appointments committee, while the Government draft makes the serving Prime Minister the chair of the commission alongside the Attorney-General.
Lal says the Government would also have influence over the appointment of two further members, which he says would give it a four-to-two majority over the Opposition.
They say the COC is responsible for appointments to several key constitutional offices, including the Electoral Commission, Supervisor of Elections, Public Service Commission, Police Commissioner, Corrections Commissioner, RFMF Commander, Auditor-General, Reserve Bank Governor and Ombudsman.
The Centre also says provisions proposed by the CRC on political parties, political finance and campaigning have been removed from the Government draft.
The CRC Amendment Bill included constitutional provisions covering political party conduct, donations, disclosure requirements and access to State-owned media.
Lal says leaving these matters to ordinary law could allow future parliamentary majorities to change the rules.
The Centre says the Bill of Rights in the Constitution Amendment Bill generally provides stronger protections than the current Constitution but has raised concern over Section 40, which expressly permits lawful and moderate chastisement of children for correction.
Lal describes this as a regression from both the CRC draft and the 2013 Constitution.
Centre says other reforms proposed by the CRC that have been removed include stronger measures for women’s representation, a National Planning Commission, a National Infrastructure Council, a constitutionally mandated Opposition chair of the Public Accounts Committee, an independent Constitution Implementation Commission and a pluralistic Presidential Appointment Commission.
Lal says these changes raise questions about how the Constitution Amendment Bill was prepared and why it differs significantly from the CRC Amendment Bill submitted on 31st August.
He is questioning who wrote the Government's Constitution Amendment Bill, what was the basis for the changes from the CRC Amendment Bill and how the substantially different constitutional text was produced within a short period.
The Centre says its assessment is preliminary and argues that the changes substantially dilute safeguards proposed by the CRC against the concentration and abuse of State power.
