Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama says he does not know what more to tell the Interim Government’s critics after assuring elections in March 2009.
Our news Director, Vijay Narayan filed this report from Nuku'alofa.
Vijay Narayan: “Fiji’s Interim PM Commodore Frank Bainimarama says he is still unsure why Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark are still maintaining that Fiji needs to come up with a credible road to democracy program before sanctions are lifted against Fiji. According to Commodore Bainimarama, he has already given his assurance and a firm commitment that elections will be called in Fiji by March 2009 and Australia and New Zealand should respect that commitment and he has confirmed that he will stand by it. Helen Clark and Alexander Downer have both said that they are still unsure on whether these sanctions will be lifted and they are still unsure whether Commodore Bainimarama will stick to his word. According to Commodore Bainimarama, they have provided the funding for the holding of a census they have facilitated the appointment of the Electoral Commission and started work on the appointment of a Supervisor of Elections by liaising with the Australian, NZ and UK missions to look for a qualified Supervisor of Elections. They have also facilitated the appointment of the Constituency Boundaries Commission and engaged with the forum sponsored Working Group and Elections Scoping Mission. Bainimarama says that the road to democracy is set for Fiji now and Fiji will have elections by March 2009”.
Commodore Bainimarama: “I don’t know what else to tell people like Helen Clark because I have said in my statement, I’m sure there are people that oppose, one – that there are people that oppose the people’s initiative which end up in the Charter. But we will keep the doors open. We have made that commitment. His Excellency and I and the co-Chair, his Grace Archbishop, made the commitment that we will keep the doors open. We must have inclusiveness in the way forward. We will go out everywhere in Fiji and talk about this charter. Every time we say something like that, there is always some negative argument about our inclusiveness. I don’t know where they are getting this information from. I have said that with this charter, anyone will come on. In fact there has been talk that we have not invited a certain group of people. Well I have been telling people that they are all lies because we have invited everyone. A lot of people did not respond. But that is alright. At least we know that they got them. But a lot of people who received them pretended that they were not invited, that they didn’t get them. This is all false".
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Commander questions critics
