Slow start to Fiji vote as army takes back seat

NADI - Fiji's first democratic election since last year's coup has had a slow start amid promises by the military it would keep a low profile over a week of polling.

The Army installed an interim government last year after nationalist rebels stormed Fiji's parliament, taking ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and members of his coalition government hostage in a siege lasting 56 days.

“We have turned security for the election over to the police,” said army spokesman Captain Ned Taito.

“The police will be the primary security providers and will only be backed by the military if the police need it,” Elections Supervisor Walter Rigamoto told the Fiji Times.

Laisenia Qarase, named by the Army last year as caretaker prime minister, and Chaudhry are viewed as frontrunners, along with Tapeni Baba, a school teacher seen as a moderate.

The leader of the coup, one-time insurance salesman George Speight, is also running for prime minister - as a candidate for the indigenous Fijian's Conservative Alliance - from a prison cell where he awaiting trial for treason.

Polling started slowly on the first day, with low voter turnouts in the major cities of Suva, Latouka and Nadi.

Eighteen parties and 351 candidates covering Fiji's more than 300 far-flung islands are contesting the poll.

Voting booths, located mostly in schools and community centers, were largely deserted several hours after opening.

In Suva, people paraded into stores for traditional Saturday shopping, walking past polling stations with hardly a glance.

Nearly every patch of open grass in Fiji was occupied by games of rugby, an obsession in Fiji.

"I don't have an interest in the election," Maciu Bola, an indigenous Fijian said.

"I for one am not sure why turnout is low, but by past indications we hope to see a difference by midday today," Rigamoto said.

Some have speculated that skepticism that a new government will be able to reverse much of the segregationist environment in which many Fijians have lived for decades may be keeping people away from the polls.

The election is being observed by 20 UN staff and a team of 20 other observers - eight from Japan, three from New Zealand, two from Australia and the rest from African and South American countries.

Conflict between ethnic Indians and native Fijians has fueled three coups and a military mutiny since 1987.

Ethnic Indians, ancestors of indentured labor brought to work the country's sugar cane fields, make up about 44 per cent of Fiji's 800,000 population and dominate business.

Fiji's electoral system splinters the country along racial lines, with parliament's 71 seats divided in 46 communal Fijian and ethnic Indian seats and 25 mixed race or “open” seats.

A plethora of indigenous parties are expected to divide the Fiji vote and Chaudhry's Fiji Labour Party, which is dominated by ethnic Indians, is again forecast to dominate.

- REUTERS

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