THE People’s Alliance party president Ratu Josefa Dimuri believes Fiji is out of time to complete constitutional and electoral law reforms before the elections.
Mr Dimuri said the shortened timeline had made it increasingly difficult to finalise the promised reforms.
“Right now, it is not that easy,” he said.
“I think we are probably running out of time, but we will just have to see what can be done.”
Although he is not a legal expert, he said the Government had made efforts to begin the reform process.
“I am not a lawyer and do not have legal expertise on this, but I think we have done the best we can so far to commence the process.”
His comments follow Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s statement that the new campaign timeline tightens the window for Fiji’s constitutional and electoral changes.
While acknowledging the public frustration over the delay, Mr Dimuri said constitutional and electoral reform were among the key promises made by The People’s Alliance during the 2022 election.
“If people care to listen, they will understand that when we started, although some promises have not been fulfilled according to expectations, they will come to understand the situation we inherited.
“When we made those promises, we were looking at the house from the outside. We tried our best based on what we could see from the outside.
He said while there had been criticism, the public should also understand the complexity of the process and the current time constraints.
“When we got into Government and saw the reality of things, there was a big mess inside. That is why some of our promises will take time to come to pass and be fulfilled.”
He said making promises from the outside was very different from experiencing the actual state of affairs once inside the office.
