1 Sep 2008

Fiji Labour leader distances FLP from charter process

1:34 pm on 1 September 2008

The Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, says part of the reason he quit the interim government was to dissociate the party from the People's Charter process.

According to the website Fijilive, Mr Chaudhry says he didn't want the people to think that the Peoples Charter was a document orchestrated by his party.

Mr Chaudhry says while he supports the document, his party is independent of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji.

He says the 1990 constitution was formed after three years of military decrees and even then it relegated Indo-Fijians to parliament's opposition benches.

The current 1997 constitution provides for 25 of parliament's 71 seats to be open to all races.

He added that to give everybody equal voting powers would end the perception that Indo-Fijians were second-class citizens and the Charter would provide that for the people of Fiji.