KEY POINTS:
Fiji would stay in crisis until it held democratic elections, says former prime minister Helen Clark.
Miss Clark, now Labour's foreign affairs spokeswoman, said today there was nothing to stop Fiji holding elections this year and the Pacific Islands Forum was right to threaten sanctions if elections were not held this year.
"Fiji will remain in crisis until it heeds the advice it is getting from its peers in the forum and it enters a proper dialogue to get through to elections and re-establish normal constitutional status."
Miss Clark said no one believed self appointed prime minister Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama when he said the government was legitimate. Commodore Bainimarama seized power in a military coup in 2006.
Yesterday the forum gave Fiji until May to announce a date for elections this year or face partial suspension from the forum. It would also be cut off from regional cooperation initiatives and new financial and technical assistance.
Miss Clark said the forum response was credible.
"There were clearly voices there for not taking further action but that would have left the forum not looking particularly credible internationally.
"It is very important the Pacific Islands Forum is seen to be in the lead in the international response to Fiji and I think it has kept that lead with what it did yesterday."
Miss Clark said Fiji could hold an election this year.
"There is no practical barrier to an election before the end of this year. The barriers are all political. It is all about Commodore Bainimarama not wanting to move in that direction at this time."
She said an election this year depended on the "dynamic in Fiji" and if wiser counsel told the commodore it was not sensible to be isolated from the rest of the Pacific by holding out on elections.
She said the Fiji Government was put there at the barrel of a gun but one of the problems was that Commodore Bainimarama did not know what his future would be under any changes.
"He is playing for time," she said.
She said if a timetable was set out, international donors would help with the cost of an election and there was no basis for Fiji to say it could not afford an election.
- NZPA
