25 Mar 2013

Proposed party claims Fiji government constricting party registrations

1:04 pm on 25 March 2013

A member of Fiji's proposed SODELPA party says the prime minister's office is trying to sabotage the registration of political parties.

There is still no word on which proposed parties, if any, have been successfully registered under the regime's political parties decree, more than a month after applications to re-register were lodged.

Dr Tupeni Baba says the government wants to delay the political parties' registration and is using what he calls political guises to do so.

"(It is) A major orchestration by the government emanating from the prime minister's office, using government communications and so forth, sabotaging the political parties, making submissions to the registrar about the political parties. It has been done to the Federation party, it has been done to the Labour party. It is now being done also to the proposed SODELPA."

Dr Tupeni Baba says the government has made excuses not to convene the Constituent Assembly because it doesn't want one and he says there was no support for the Assembly anyway.