Labour Leader Mahendra Chaudhry has questioned the Government’s authority to appoint a Constitution review commission without first securing parliamentary approval.
Mr Chaudhry said any move to review the country’s supreme law must be properly mandated through Parliament.
“How can a committee to review the Constitution be appointed without first obtaining Parliamentary approval?” he asked.
He pointed to the 1997 constitutional review process as the correct precedent, where Parliament first authorised the exercise.
“A review of the Constitution must be properly authorised through a parliamentary resolution as it was done in 1997. Only then was a commission appointed to review the racist 1990 Constitution at the time,” Mr Chaudhry said.
He stressed that both the establishment of the commission and its terms of reference should be approved by Parliament.
“This is a matter dealing with the Constitution. It must have proper mandate through Parliament which must also approve a terms of reference for the review commission,” he said.
Mr Chaudhry said the Government should not proceed unilaterally on such a significant national issue.
“The government cannot simply go ahead and appoint a commission to review the Constitution without proper terms of reference and without it having parliamentary approval,” he said.
He also raised concerns that the Opposition had not challenged the move.
“One wonders why the parliamentary Opposition has not raised this matter?” he said.
Mr Chaudhry further criticised the Government for failing to obtain parliamentary approval to lower the voting threshold for constitutional amendments.
“This government has been acting unilaterally in matters concerning the Constitution, creating fear and instability, undermining confidence in Fiji’s future,” he warned.
