Fiji's increasingly urbanised population is looming large for the country's political parties in this year's election, according to a Fijian politics scholar.
Pedestrians walk in Fiji's capital, Suva. Photo: RNZ / Jamie Tahana
Last year's census showed well over half of Fiji's people - 56 percent - live in Suva and other towns compared to just over a third of the population in the 1970s and 80s.
The election date is yet to be announced but election authorities have stepped up preparations for the poll.
Alumita Durutalo of New Zealand's Otago University said this had implications for policies on infrastructure and other areas.
"Implications on jobs and cost of living and also the other things that are affected like crime rates because I've been reading there's a lot of crime going on in Suva at the moment because of the high number of unemployed youths that roam the city."
In Dr Durutalo's view, the ruling Fiji First party was likely to maintain power in this year's election.
She said the party, which won nearly 60 percent of the vote in the 2014 election, had decrees in place which ensured this.
She said Fiji First retained much Indo-Fijian support and it was questionable whether the main oppositon party in parliament, SODELPA, could rally more support from indigenous Fijians.
She said SODELPA's success depended on people's acceptance of another former coup leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, who now leads the party.
"It really depends on how they campaign and how they try and influence voters in Fiji that Rabuka will be able to run Fiji smoothly again."
Dr Durutalo, a lecturer with Te Tumu, the School of Māori, Pacific & Indigenous Studies at Otago University, said the six registered parties facing Fiji First are too many for a small country like Fiji.
