The Electoral Reform Commission that conducted public consultations on our electoral laws and submitted a report with recommendations to the government, has recommended that Fiji should have 71 parliamentary seats coming from 25 local constituencies where 25 are open seats and 25 seats reserved for women, and another 21 MPs come through a list system based on the proportion of votes received.
Speaking to fijivillage News from Australia, Electoral Reform Commissioner, Professor Wadan Narsey says based on their recommendation, the 25 local constituencies in the general elections will include 5 maritime constituencies which include Lau, Kadavu, Yasawa, Lomaiviti and Rotuma.
He says for too long, there has been talk of increasing women representation in parliament, and the recommendation to have 25 seats reserved for women in each constituency will finally achieve that goal.
Professor Narsey says this means that each local constituency will have 2 MPs.
He says what they put in the report is what people wanted.
He stresses that the people want their local constituencies and they have been asking who are their local MPs.
The electoral reform report was handed to the Ministry of Justice in July this year after two rounds of public consultations.
We have asked Acting Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Siromi Turaga on when the report will be made public and when the government will decide on it.
The report is expected to be discussed by cabinet soon.
Stay with us for developments.
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