The Interim Prime Minister has today made it clear that the proposed Presidential Forum involving political parties will only be held after the People's Charter is endorsed.
Commodore Frank Bainimarama stresses that the parties will only be invited to talk about the electoral reforms, and no other discussions will take place.
He said the parties should realize that if the Charter is endorsed by the majority of the people of Fiji, it also means that the people want the new electoral system.
“The understanding is that the political forum will discuss the electoral reform, full Stop. So it’s going to achieve after the electoral reform there going to be endorsed which is in the charter. I don’t know the difficulty in that I understand that the SDL and the Methodist Church or the few people at the Methodist Church that are going against the Charter. I think that they don’t want to now come in into the political discussion, the Presidents dialogue, because my intention to have the charter first then endorsed. The reason why the charter needs to be endorsed is the changes that need to come about in the electoral process is in the charter. So yes there’s going to be a Presidents Forum and it has to be done after the charter because the endorsement of the charter will be the endorsement of the electoral changes”.
Meanwhile Commodore Bainimarama said it is evident from the places where he has visited that the people of the country want a positive change in Fiji.
He said there are positive reactions in relation to the draft People's Charter based on that because people living in the rural areas have been given false promises for years by politicians and previous governments. He said he has been telling the people that their lives will truly change if they accept the draft Charter.
“Well I’m not doing anything, everything is in the charter. As I continue to say if you endorse the charter, you endorse the provision of good governance and the good governance would provide for people in the rural areas everything they want so my plea to the people of Fiji is have a look at the charter, read the charter, address it so we can of course proceed with good governance that’s in the charter and provide for the people in the rural areas project and development which have been required for the last 30 years”.
Bainimarama will be at Churchill Park from 1pm tomorrow to talk to the people of Lautoka about the draft People's Charter.
