Electoral Review Team member Professor Wadan Narsey has publicly outlined key recommendations from the team’s report, confirming details of a proposed new electoral model aimed at restoring local representation and improving proportionality.
Writing in The Fiji Times today, Prof Narsey said the team had reached consensus—after “considerable discussion” and “firm mediation by the Chairman”—on a Proportional Open List Constituency System (POLCS).
“This is the system people all over Fiji asked for. They wanted local constituencies and locally accountable MPs,” he said.
Under the proposed POLCS, Fiji would be divided into 25 constituencies—including five maritime seats—though Prof Narsey said the number could be reduced to 20.
A key rationale, he said, came from an “extremely acute observation” by Professor Jon Fraenkel of Victoria University, who noted that the 2013 Constitution requires only one electoral roll, not one constituency. “We could have many constituencies and still remain within the 2013 Constitution,” Prof Narsey said.
Each constituency would elect two MPs: one open seat and one reserved seat for women, allowing Fiji to meet CEDAW commitments. “Anyone could stand, and everyone would vote,” he said.
He emphasised that ballot papers would be “absolutely simple,” with fewer than a dozen candidates and a single tick required. Winners would be decided by first-past-the-post and counted transparently at constituency centres.
To ensure party proportionality, an open-list mechanism would allocate 21 additional seats from among the highest-polling losing party candidates.
“All major ethnic groups would be fairly represented according to voter numbers,” Prof Narsey said. “Hopefully, coups will be a thing of the past.”
The full model includes 71 MPs, but if the 2013 constitutional cap is enforced, it could operate with 55 MPs. “The Electoral Commission could have discretion to adjust the numbers slightly,” he said.
Prof Narsey stated the views in the column were his only and not of other review team members.
