Kelvin
Anthony RNZ Pacific digital/social lead
Fiji’s
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has given in to public
pressure and decided to extend the timeline for a major
constitutional reform process only a day after he confirmed
that he would table a bill to change the country’s
constitution.
In a complete U-turn from his position
on tabling the controversial Constitution (Amendment) Bill
2026 this week, Rabuka announced on the floor of parliament
on Monday that the Special Parliamentary Committee on the
bill would “table its review report at a later sitting
date”.
The prime minister did not provide a date for
when that would be, stating only that the final report would
be presented back to parliament in “due time”.
He had
previously told RNZ Pacific that he had not announced an
election date – which has a hard deadline of 6 Febraury 2027
– due to the constitutional reform process that was running
in parallel.
Rabuka also replaced his coalition
partner and leader of the National Federation Party (NFP),
Biman Prasad, as a member of the committee after Prasad had
announced on Saturday that the party would vote against the
bill.
“Constitutional legitimacy cannot be sacrificed
for political expediency,” Prasad said over the
weekend.
“There should be no shortcuts or
fast-tracking of any constitutional process.
“We will
no longer participate in the special parliamentary committee
nor will I be a signatory to the report of the committee to
parliament next week,” he said.
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Rabuka needed
a two-thirds majority – at least 36 votes – to pass the
bill through a 53-seat parliament following the passing of
two MPs from the original 55-member parliament.
With
the NFP and the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa)
both having objections about the process and the contents of
the bill, it meant Rabuka was not likely to get the numbers
required for the bill to pass the third reading.
The
decision to extend the process also means that Rabuka’s
decision to announce a referendum date for 9 December has
hit a
wall.
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