Fighting the 2022 election against incumbency — existing tenure in government — will be very difficult indeed for the Opposition.
Incumbency gives a supplementary boost, to the FijiFirst and though the Parliament will be dissolved later, their ministers will wield great power and will still be in control — albeit care-taker mode — and thus the FijiFirst Governance very much evident.
The interim mini-budget of March 24, 2022 has made the job of the Opposition very hard.
FijiFirst has moved centre, and taken on some of the policies of the opposition.
These, in areas of VAT removal on food and the increase in wages to $4 from January 2023.
Legally the campaign starts on April 26, 2022 and runs until 48 hours are left for the start of voting, for the candidates standing in the 2022 General Election.
The 55 candidates can expect the election to be held between July 9 at the earliest and before January 9 2023.
According to the 2013 Constitution of Fiji the Parliament has to sit for at least three years and six months from the date of the last General Election, before an election can take place.
To put the present Parliament, in perspective, it should be noted that the opposition party SODELPA, increased its seat numbers in the 2018 General Elections by 8 seats — from 13 in 2014 to 21 in 2018 – this being a 63 per cent increase in seats in the new 2018-2022 Parliament.
The governing FijiFirst Party, however lost five seats, going from 32 in 2014 to 27 in 2018 — losing some six seats — a 19 per cent loss.
The 2018 General Election had 637,527 registered voters, with only 71 per cent of the population going to the polls.
454,335 valid votes were cast, with 4197 invalid ones.
The matter of 29 per cent Fijians not turning to vote is concerning, and this needs to be addressed by the Electoral Commission, together with the issue of a very large invalid vote — this requires the intervention of the Commission — voter education is vital. Fijians need to make their votes count and if a person does not vote, as 29 per cent of them decided not to do, then your democratic right to elect your own representatives in the Parliament be decided only by those people who turn up to vote.
Of those that turned up, 4197 votes were invalid, so it is important that you learn how to vote, properly, if you want your one vote to count.
A win or loss should never be decided by default, on whether how many votes became invalid or how many people failed to turn up.
Fijians needs to know as responsible citizens, that they only get to vote once in four years, and that their votes are more important, than what they may have ever thought.
Being lazy, complacent, not even being responsible to get out to exercise your democratic right to elect people in Parliament, will mean that your choice will be ignored and that a person or party that you may not like, will be in Parliament forming the next government.
Citizens should study and note the policies espoused by the differing parties, and see if they appear to be credible and appear as if the party will be able to deliver, once in Parliament.
Also, it is important that we elect educated, well versed individuals, who seem ethically inclined and appear to have citizens’ welfare at heart, rather than their personal agendas.
Nationalistic and individual extreme ideas, racial intolerance and religious indifference should not be allowed to pollute our minds as Fiji is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-age and multi-gender population, and thus we need to be sensitive of all these things.
The present governing party formed the government with 50.02 per cent of the votes.
This in fact means that there are another 49.98 per cent of Fijians out there in Fiji, who also need their wishes to be represented in Parliament or policies enacted on their behalf also.
The government needs to govern for all, despite the fact that only half of the population may have voted for it.
This is where the true acumen of a leader leading the nation is realised, and thus he has to be in open communication with all the parties; able to form compromises and work for the benefit of the entire nation.
We note that in the 2018 election, the FijiFirst received 227,241 (50.02 per cent) votes, Social Democratic Liberal Party 181,072 (39.85 per cent), National Federation Party 33,515 (7.38 per cent), Unity Fiji Party 6896 (1.52 per cent) and HOPE Party 2811 (0.62 per cent), respectively.
It appears that the FijiFirst was lucky to have survived, due to a number of factors.
Had the opposition been unified and not been bickering, and got their act together, right from the start, they probably would be governing today.
Their loss was on the backdrop of over 4197 informal votes and 12,700 votes not being counted from other opposition parties likely to form a coalition, due to them not getting past the five per cent threshold required, to be relevant.
The National Federation Party received three seats. With 24 seat coalition, the opposition was only shy of the Government by three seats, with the weather instrumental in the low voter turnout during the 2018 elections
also, suppressing the turnout to only 71 per cent of the population.
Should the opposition, as a coalition, remain unified and cohesive like a rock, policy driven in the interest of the poor – dumping any racial bigotry, hatred or nationalistic ideals – or setting these personal feelings aside – with the sole hope and objective of being a force, then even a win by a nose will bring about a change of government.
Whatever the choices Fijians make, they should all be aware that they have grave responsibilities on their shoulders to be relevant.
To be relevant means, that once in four years, you are as tall as the PM of the nation, your vote can either extend or dismiss the life of the governing party.
That one votein increments adds up to many thousands, and as nearly 650,000 voters turn up to the 2022 General Election, please be aware that your count of one vote incrementally added — one person one vote — can give life or the boot to the party that will govern our nation.
That is, Fijians can form or dismiss a government by just your one democratic vote.
Please take care to utilise that one vote, and know the value of your democratic vote, and your democratic right to vote.
Whatever the case, do not invalidate it, for whatever reason, least of it being due to carelessness as those 4197 individuals did in 2018.
Happy voting and may your party form the next government.
• DR SUSHIL K SHARMA is a former British Aerospace and the Royal Saudi Air Force Aviation Meteorologist, Fiji Meteorological Service Manager Climate, Research and Special Services, and Associate Professor of Meteorology, Fiji National University. He is an accredited WMO Class 1 Professional Meteorologist. The views expressed are his own and not necessarily shared by this newspaper.
