SUVA: Fiji's military government has announced it will dump a draft constitution prepared by an academic panel and prepare its own version, a move New Zealand labelled a "backward step" for the Pacific nation.
Military leaders in the coup-plagued island state commissioned a panel led by Kenyan academic Yash Ghai to draw up a constitution last year but took issue with some recommendations put forward in the document.
President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau said Ghai's blueprint risked reigniting racial tensions in Fiji, where divisions exist between the indigenous population and ethnic Indians brought to the country in the colonial era.
He said it also threatened to undo reforms introduced by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup and has pledged to hold elections in 2014 after the new constitution has been adopted.
"The Ghai draft (constitution ) can lead to financial and economic catastrophe and ruin," Nailatikau said in a nationally televised address on Thursday night.
While the draft has not been officially released, leaked copies indicate Ghai wanted the military, a key player in the four coups the Pacific nation has endured since 1987, to stay out of politics after the 2014 elections.
He also called for a transitional government to take over ahead of the 2014 vote, meaning Bainimarama would have to cede power.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the government had effectively "trashed" the work of Ghai's Constitutional Commission, which completed its draft after receiving more than 7,000 public submissions.
He said the international community would be watching closely to ensure the new constitution allowed for free and fair elections, rather than providing a blueprint for the military's version of democracy.
"This is not flash, it's a backward step of some proportions," McCully told Radio New Zealand.
"But it's been the history of this whole process. This is not going to be a simple straight line towards elections and international credibility, there are always going to be steps forward and steps back."
He added that the move by the military to draw up its own draft constitution was "rather larger a step back than any of us feel comfortable with, but it's what we've got to work with".
The new draft constitution is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
- AFP/al
Fiji's military ruler drops draft constitution
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