2006 Fijian general election

A major issue to be resolved ahead of the election was that of constituency boundaries. With the constitution requiring the 25 open constituencies and 29 of the 46 communal constituencies to be substantially equal in population, the Constituency Boundaries Commission, chaired by Barrie Sweetman, explored possible changes. Time constraints made the matter an urgent one, he said on 21 November. The elections office also revealed that any changes to electoral boundaries would require a reregistration of all voters affected, further complicating the exercise. A final decision was expected by the end of November 2005, but this was delayed.

Sweetman announced on 6 February 2006 that with the elections so close, boundaries might not be changed at all. Unless there was pressure from political parties, the commission would meet in the next week to decide the matter, he said.

The Commission ruled on 24 February that there would be no changes to electoral boundaries, citing lack of time before the forthcoming elections. Changes could be made only following a census, the last of which was held in 1996; current population data was too old, Sweetman said. The commission called for a review of census laws, suggesting an interval of five years rather than the current ten.

A record of 25 parties had registered for the 2006 election, as of early March. Most of the major parties led by indigenous Fijians have formed a coalition, tentatively known as the Grand Coalition Initiative Group, in an attempt to consolidate the indigenous vote; the coalition appears certain to be dominated by the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL), which the nucleus of the present ruling coalition of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. (A smaller party, the Conservative Alliance (CAMV) was part of the ruling coalition and of the Grand Coalition, but was dissolved and merged into the SDL in early March).

On the other hand, intense rivalry between the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) of former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and the National Federation Party, the two main parties with significant Indo-Fijian support, appears to make any alliance between them problematic. Both have expressed interest in forming a multi-racial alliance with the National Alliance Party (NAPF) of Ratu Epeli Ganilau (an avowedly multiracial party) and the United Peoples Party (UPP) of Mick Beddoes, which appeals mostly to minority groups. On 16 October, the UPP announced that negotiations to form an electoral pact with the FLP had been concluded, and the decision to go ahead had been endorsed by the UPP executive the day before. On 2 December, the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to draw up a joint manifesto and to exchange preferences, but leaving both parties free to contest any or all of the 71 seats separately, or to field joint candidates by mutual agreement. The memorandum also left open the possibility of other parties joining the coalition.

SDL Executive Director Jale Baba had earlier said that the deal between the FLP and the UPP had been expected, and that the SDL did not see it as a threat. He also said that it was possible that the SDL might form partnerships with parties not involved with the Grand Coalition.

Consultations have also taken place between both parties and the NAPF, with Ganilau announcing on 17 October that a decision on whether or not to forge an electoral pact with the FLP and UPP would be announced after a meeting of party executives. On 29 November, however, he said that the NAPF wanted to keep its options open and would hold negotiations with all political parties, including the SDL, before reaching a final decision.

The Party of National Unity (PANU), which was re-registered in January 2006 following its dissolution a few months earlier, announced on 27 January that it would be giving its first preference to the FLP, and would also cooperate with the NAPF and the UPP. PANU, a multi-racial party based in Ba Province, had previously aligned itself with the FLP-dominated People's Coalition in the 1999 election.

The two major political parties, the SDL and the FLP, are both attempting to break out of their ethnic cocoons. The SDL, which presently has only one Indo-Fijian in its Parliamentary caucus and attracted less than one percent of the Indo-Fijian vote in 2001, has announced that it will contest all 19 communal constituencies reserved for Indo-Fijians, with General Secretary Jale Baba saying that the party is "confident" of winning most of them. The FLP, for its part, is hoping to win some of the 23 communal seats reserved for indigenous Fijians for the first time. Although founded in the mid-1980s by Timoci Bavadra, an indigenous Fijian, it lost most of its indigenous support in the 1990s and attracted barely two percent of the indigenous vote in 2001, which saw only two indigenous candidates elected on the FLP ticket, neither from a Fijian communal constituency.

Both parties have expressed optimism about their gambits, with Prime Minister Qarase saying on Radio Sargam (affiliated to Fiji Village) on 5 October that the SDL expected to win an absolute majority in the 71-member House of Representatives, and regarded as many as 50 seats as a real possibility.

The outspoken Military Commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama initially opposed the early election date, saying that the registration and enrollment process was not complete and that no election should be held without a census preceding it. He conceded, however, that it was too late to hold a census now; it should have been held two years ago, he said. On another issue, his spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Orisi Rabukawaqa said that the Military was still opposed to the controversial Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill, and warned the government against trying to reintroduce it should it win the elections.

SDL campaign coordinator spoke out on 3 March to condemn Bainimarama's stated intention to discourage soldiers and their relatives and friends from voting for political parties and candidates that he termed "racist" and "discriminatory." He challenged Bainimarama to contest the election himself if he wanted to participate in politics. "If the good commander is passionate and is a man of integrity, he should resign and contest the next elections. That is the proper and legal form for leaders with a vision to articulate their vision for or against them," Baba told Fiji Television. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also criticized the Commander. In an interview with ABC Television reported by Fiji Live on 3 March, Downer reiterated earlier opposition to Military interference in politics.

Bainimarama said on 9 March that the Military would support any government that was elected, but would not necessarily support its program. He condemned claims that a vote for the FLP would be a vote for instability, saying that such "lies" came from the same "opportunists" who had attempted the 2000 coup. He urged Fijian citizens to vote for candidates on the basis of their policies, rather than their ethnicities. "Don't choose a party just because it's a Fijian party. Choose an Indian or Chinese if his policies are for your benefit," Fiji Live quoted him as saying.

On 10 March, the Fiji Village news service quoted Bainimarama as saying that the Military was about to launch a campaign to inform the population about how certain SDL policies allegedly contravened the Constitution. "My senior officers and I agreed in a meeting last week that the army should inform the people of Fiji of what happened in 2000," he said. "We will use the media, we will go into villages and tell them the real truth of what happened and what is being done. There is no strong leadership in the Government to say 'do the right thing'. By not having programmes to educate people that what happened in 2000 was wrong, we will continue to live in an area of instability like that of 2000," he declared. He accused the government of deliberately misleading the population: "By not educating the people about doing what is right, it is willfully lying and misleading them," he alleged. Ropate Sivo, General Secretary of the Conservative Alliance (who is resisting the decision of the party to dissolve) condemned the Commander's comments, saying that he was "only hungry for power."

Military spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni reacted angrily on 13 March to the dismissal on the 9th of talk show host Sitiveni Raturala from the state-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBCL). An interview Raturala had conducted with Bainimarama had breached his contract, FBCL Chief Executive Officer Francis Herman said. Leweni charged that the government had had a hand in the dismissal, and warned against any attempts to muzzle the media in the leadup to the election. Leweni was supported by Ema Druavesi, General Secretary of the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT), which ruled Fiji throughout most of the 1990s.

The same day, another Military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Orisi Rabukawaqa, said that the campaign was not anti-government or anti-any particular party. It was all about persuading the electorate to vote on the basis of conscience rather than race, the Fiji Times quoted him as saying.

The Fiji Times quoted Bainimarama on 13 March as saying that the SDL government had betrayed the mandate given to it by the Military in 2000. In appointing the Qarase government, Bainimarama said, the Military had taken it for granted that it would uphold the rule of law. Such expectations had been misplaced, he considered.

SDL campaign organizer Jale Baba said on 13 March that he had written to the Elections Office, the Commissioner of Police, and the Director of Public Prosecutions to call for an investigation into what he called the unconstitutional campaign of the military, and what he alleged to be its illegal use of public money. The next day, the Fiji Sun quoted Baba as saying that legal action against the Military was being considered, and that he had written to the Chairman of the Electoral Commission to call for them to investigate the Military's political activities. The President of Fiji had also been written to and asked to discipline the Commander, he said.

Prime Minister Qarase called a meeting of Fiji's National Security Council on 14 March to discuss the behaviour of the Military. He said that the actions of the Commander were unwarranted and undemocratic. He also raised the issue of illegal spending of public money for the Military's political campaign. Meanwhile, Radio Australia reported that the Auditor General had been asked to investigate this alleged misuse of public funds.

Fiji Village quoted the Prime Minister as saying that the real reason for the breakdown in his fortnightly meetings with Bainimarama was that the latter had expected him to implement orders from the Military and had shown no respect for the elected government. "On my meetings with the military commander, what really went wrong was that he expected me and my Government to follow orders. In other words, to do everything he wanted," Qarase said. He accused Commodore Bainimarama of "conveniently forgetting" that the Fiji Labour Party (FLP), which he accused the Commander of supporting, had itself attempted to form a coalition with the Conservative Alliance (CAMV), which included numbers of coup-sympathizers, some of whom were subsequently convicted of involvement, after the 2001 election, and had offered amnesty to coup-convicts in exchange for CAMV support for an FLP government.

The military campaign was criticized even by other opponents of the government. Rev. Akuila Yabaki of the Citizens Constitutional Forum said on 14 March that while he sympathized with the Military's reasons for opposing government policies, it was unacceptable in a democracy for the Military to intervene in the electoral process and that such interference must be stopped. Fiji Village revealed the same day that Home Affairs Minister Vosanibola had filed another complaint with police about the Commander's public statements against the government.

Reverend Ame Tugaue, General Secretary of the Methodist Church (to which some two-thirds of indigenous Fijians are affiliated) told Fiji Live on 7 March that the church supported the Qarase government and the SDL, but would not attempt to influence its members to vote accordingly. He emphasized, however, that the church supported what he considered to be the strongly Christian moral stance of the SDL, adding, "It is our right and responsibility and we will choose someone who will ensure peace since Fiji was a paradise before."

This does not include seats that changed candidates but not parties, defections or seats held by members not seeking re-election.

Following the military coup which ousted Laisenia Qarase's government in December 2006, the "interim government" led by coup leader Frank Bainimarama received unexpected support from the Fiji Human Rights Commission (FHRC) and its chairwoman Dr. Shaista Shameem. The latter agreed with Commodore Bainimarama's expressed views regarding Prime Minister Qarase's allegedly racist and divisive policies. In 2007, the FHRC commissioned an inquiry into the 2006 general election, intended to reveal whether it had truly been "free and fair".

The Commission of Inquiry delivered a report which "identifie[d] deficiencies and anomalies at every stage of the election process". More specifically, the report stated that Indo-Fijian voters were provided with incorrect information regarding the voting process, that they were mis-registered in their constituencies to a far greater extent than other voters, and that, as an ethnic group, they faced specific impediments to voting (such as an absence of voting slips required for Indo-Fijian voters) in key marginal constituencies. There was also evidence of ballot boxes having been tampered with. Dr. David Neilson, a member of the Commission of Inquiry, wrote:

"The registration process was both inadequate and biased and submissions strongly indicate campaigning involved deliberate and explicit vote-buying near polling day by the SDL party in league with the broader state. [...] The evidence does not provide systematic quantitative proof regarding the extent to which bias and vote-rigging altered the election outcome. But it provides a strong prima facie case that the elections clearly fell short of "free and fair"."[2]

This prompted the Labour Party to state that the SDL had "cheated its way into power through electoral fraud and massive vote buying schemes".[3]