(Suva) The Fiji Islands are at an impasse: the final results of the legislative elections published on Sunday do not make it possible to decide between outgoing Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama and his political rival Sitiveni Rabuka, the parliamentary majority remains at stake.
Perfect equality. Mr. Bainimarama’s party, Fiji First, and the coalition led by Mr. Rabuka are expected to each win 26 seats in the 55-member parliament, according to the official vote tally from Wednesday’s poll posted online by the Office. Fijian election.
These results without a winner come to close a turbulent campaign marked by accusations of fraud and calls for the intervention of the army by Mr. Rabuka.
The objective of the two candidates is now to first conclude an alliance with the Social Democratic Party, which holds the last three decisive seats.
The challenge promises to be difficult because its leader, the very religious Viliame Gavoka, former president of the Fiji Rugby Union, has fallen out with the two contenders for the post of Prime Minister.
Sitiveni Rabuka, 74-year-old former head of government, twice coup leader, opposes outgoing Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, 68, also a former military leader, brought to power by a coup in 2006 and elected since twice.
PHOTO MICK TSIKAS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Outgoing Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama
Malfunctions
Earlier in the week, members of the opposition led by Mr Rabuka had demanded an immediate halt to the counting of votes and the opening of an investigation after problems during the night from Wednesday to Thursday blocked the display of results for four hours.
The Social Democrats were part of this process.
Sitiveni Rabuka initially raced in the lead and won 45% of the vote on Saturday evening against 42% for the formation of Frank Bainimarama.
More than half of the 2071 polling stations had then transmitted their results, but a comeback from Mr. Bainimarama was expected, in particular thanks to the vote of urbanites.
The outgoing Prime Minister has remained silent since the launch of the ballot on Wednesday, unlike his rival who denounced ” anomalies ” and declared that this ballot was ” shrouded in secrecy “.
“In view of the material violation of counting, we call for the immediate halt to the ongoing electoral process and its replacement by a new manual counting of all votes,” Rabuka said in a letter to the security monitoring authority. elections written on Thursday and published on Saturday.
He was summoned by the police on Friday and then questioned with the secretary general of his party Sakiasi Ditoka. No indication was provided of any charges against them.
“This way the government is doing, we’re talking about a climate of fear. That’s how they instill fear,” Mr. Rabuka told AFP later, considering that this maneuver was a government intimidation strategy.
No irregularity
“Depending on the announcement of the results on Sunday, we could see more criticism of the electoral process or recourse to the judicial system to try to maintain a chance of power,” warned Lucy Albiston of the Australian Institute of Political Strategy.
This vote was perceived as a test for the young and fragile Fijian democracy and has a significant international dimension: Frank Bainimarama is rather close to Beijing, while Sitiveni Rabuka and Viliame Gavoka would like to move away from it.
Nearly 100 international observers monitored the election without detecting any irregularities, stating that problems displaying the vote count did not mean that the counting system itself was corrupt.
Fiji Labor Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry, a former prime minister, also denounced election fraud on Saturday, accusations dismissed by poll supervisor Mohammed Saneem who stressed that Mr Chaudhry had no evidence.
Four prime ministers have been overthrown in coups over the past 35 years, some led by current candidates for the post of head of government.