The electoral system established under the 1997 Constitution is no longer suitable for the country’s current demographic realities, says Munro Leys partner Jon Apted.
He told the Attorney-General’s Conference in Nadi the upshot was that the 1997 Constitution, though well-intended, did not work from the start.
“It did not bring political parties together, it did not create power-sharing arrangements that were acceptable to all,” Mr Apted said.
“Instead, it perpetuated communal representation, and it created huge instability.
“So, in a nutshell, when you look back at the 1997 Constitution, it’s not the constitution for our time.”
Mr Apted said the original allocation of seats for indigenous Fijians, Indo-Fijians, and other communities was based on the population data available at the time of its drafting.
“The population now is significantly different, so if we were to introduce, reintroduce that system, indigenous Fijians would be underrepresented for once, Indo-Fijians would be overrepresented, and the minority communities would still be overrepresented.”
Mr Apted said the provincial urban numbers were also heavily skewed in favour of rural voters.
He pointed out that this imbalance has been exacerbated by 28 years of urban drift, particularly to areas like Nadi and Lautoka, meaning the indigenous Fijian population was now further underrepresented.
“So, in that sense, even the last indigenous Fijians are underrepresented.
“So, the lesson from that is that the 1997 constitution is an example of attempts at electoral engineering.”
Mr Apted outlined two key lessons that should inform any future constitutional or electoral review process:
“The people came with their submissions, the report came out, it went to Parliament but the people were not given the opportunity to comment or give their views before the draft was finalised and passed.
“Second, we have to avoid complicated systems.
“The AV (alternative vote) system was too complicated for our voters to understand.”
He concluded that introducing any new voting system would require a significant investment in public education.
