Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fiji regime expected to present new draft constitution

Posted at 22:53 on 30 January, 2013 UTC

The Fiji regime is today expected to present a new draft constitution after dumping the document produced by the Constitution Commission last month.

Three weeks ago, the interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, used a televised address to announce that the new draft should be available for deliberation by the end of January.

During the same broadcast, the president Ratu Epeli Nailatikau said the Commission’s draft had to go because Fiji had to break with its past and ensure that unelected people no longer made decisons for the general public.

He also accused the Commission of perhaps succumbing to the whims of the few who have an interest in perpetuating divisions within Fiji society.

The new draft has been commissioned from Fiji’s Solicitor General’s Office, which is run by Christopher Pryde of New Zealand.

It will be given to a yet to be named Constituent Assembly which is tasked to debate and approve it by the third week of March.