Electoral Reform consultation will be people's first step in democracy - Fatiaki

The Electoral Reform consultation will be people’s first genuine attempt to participate in democracy and people should turn up, and speak to us.

Chair of the Electoral Reform Commission and former Chief Justice, Daniel Fatiaki highlighted this during fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan.

Fatiaki says the review of electoral laws is part of the democratic process and they want people to tell them what they like and don’t like about the current electoral system which was brought in through decrees.

He says people should tell them how they think the system could be improved and what they see about people being elected to the Parliament.

The Chair says he has lived through the 1997 Constitution and what happened under that Constitution's electoral system, frankly, was a disaster.

Fatiaki says people are inviting them to go back to the 1997 Constitution and he said that they don’t want to go back, however, they have an opportunity to recommend to this country an electoral system that won't allow us to go back there.

Fatiaki and Electoral Reform Commissioner and economist, Professor Wadan Narsey are part of the Commission to review the electoral system of Fiji.

Nationwide consultations for the electoral law reforms start on Monday.