Pacific Magazine > Daily News

Commonwealth Concerned Over Fiji Elections Preparations

By Pacific Magazine
Tuesday: May 13, 2008

Commonwealth Ministers have declared concern over the slow pace of election preparations in Fiji, and pressures on media and the judiciary at a meeting in London overnight.

In the concluding statement of the 29th Meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group on the Harare Declaration (CMAG) the Ministers state that while they strongly support the regional process to assist Fiji move towards elections as spearheaded by the Pacific Islands Forum, they "expressed grave concern at slippages in election preparation. It noted the need to appoint an appropriate Supervisor of Elections immediately and called on the interim government to expedite preparations for the elections under the current constitutional arrangements"

In a statement released this morning CMAG also says it "continued to be concerned at reports which indicated that the independence of the judiciary and freedom of the media were being seriously compromised, including the deportation of media personnel in contravention of court orders and evidence of the continued militarization of key Fijian institutions. It also expressed concern at reports of continued human rights abuses."

CMAG has called for "significant progress to be made in Fiji towards meeting the deadline by the time of CMAG’s next meeting in September."