With hours remaining for the draft People's Charter to be made public, ousted Prime Minister and Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua leader Laisenia Qarase said the document will not do anything good for Fiji as it will be forced on the people of the country.

"The Charter is going to be a most divisive document that this country will ever see since independence. Through what i've read, it seems the whole intention is to force the major electoral changes without going through parliament. And I get the unfortunate feeling that the intentions of the charter is to marginalise the seperate Fijian instutions, the Fijian administration and to marginalise the Native Land Trust Board. THese are very sensitive and very imporatnt institutions." Ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase
Qarase said the changes cannot be implemented.

"Some major changes are proposed there in terms of electoral assistance and so on. Our plan is that any changes to the constitution and any changes to the electoral system must be done legally througoh an elected parliament. We will not accept and we will not support any changes to the electoral system or changes to the constituion that are carried out or implemented outside of the constitution." Qarase   


Interim Prime Minister and Co Chair of the NCBBF,Commodore Bainimarama said Qarase does not know what he is talking about.

Bainimarama said the People's Charter will make Qarase a better politician.

Draft Charter To Be Made Public

A major step in the history of Fiji will be taken today as a draft People's Charter recommending major constitutional and electoral changes is expected to be made public by the National Council for Building a Better Fiji (NCBBF).

As debate continues on whether we should have a Charter or just go back to elections under the current constitution, it is now clear that the proposal will have major electoral changes including a new voting system and a One Man One Vote System.

This would also require changes to the constitution as the supreme law of the land currently has the Alternative Voting System and the allocated Fijian, Indian, General Voter Communal Seats and Open Seats.

The unveiling of the Draft Charter and the next 6 weeks of consultations will be the final lap for the NCBBF as the final Charter is expected to be handed to the President Ratu Josefa Iloilo in early October.

And with hours remaining for the Draft Charter to be made public, Ousted Prime Minister and SDL Leader Laisenia Qarase said the document will not do anything good for Fiji as it will be forced on the people of the country.

Draft Charter To Include Report On Economy Publish date/time: 05/08/2008 [07:32]

As the nation awaits the release of the Draft People's Charter today, it was revealed that a report on the State of the Nation and the Economy will also be included in the Charter.

Head of the Technical and Support Secretariat for the NCBBF John Samy confirmed that after much deliberation it has been decided that the people need to see for themselves what the situation of the economy really is while consulting them on the draft Charter.

"What we are thinking of now is from the SNE (State of the Nation and Economy) report, there is an executive summary that gives you a pretty good idea what is in the SNE report. We were thinking of putting that together with the draft charter and circulate it widely. so people have the benefit of the information of what's in the SNE report." John Samy

Meanwhile, the draft of the People's Charter was handed over to the NCBBF members yesterday afternoon and the members are today expected to scrutinize the document and make amendments where necessary.

Samy confirmed earlier that 60 percent of the NCBBF members saw the draft of the Peoples Charter for the first time yesterday.

Day two of the NCBBF meeting gets underway at 9am at the Nasova Police Barracks.

NCBBF Deliberate On Charter Publish date/time: 04/08/2008 [13:37]

The members of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji are deliberating on the draft People's Charter and how to take it to the people.

During his opening address at the 5th NCBBF meeting this morning at the Nasova Police Barracks, Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama said the Draft People's Charter will be a challenge for NCBBF members.