The ousted Prime Minister said there were two main issues discussed in his meeting with the European Union (EU) group, TROIKA, which took place this morning.
Laisenia Qarase said they talked about the elections and a way forward for the country amongst other issues.
"The meeting went quite well. There were two main issues: one was in relation to the general election 2009 and the other was for finding a way forward for Fiji.
The discussion took place around those particular issues. I did say that our Interim PM had promised that the General Election would be held around March 2009 under the 1997 Constitution. That promise was made to the Pacific Island leaders in Tonga. It was made to the European Union. It was made to Fiji and it was made to the international community in general. A promise is a promise and I did suggest that it should be kept." Ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.
Qarase said he stressed to the group that any kind of electoral reform must be done within the constitution.
"If the Interim Government insists that there should be electoral reforms prior to the general election, then of course those changes will be illegal unless they are made within the provision of the constitution and inside parliament. There is no other legal way. In relation to our way forward, I did suggest that since we have a very serious political crisis, the solution can be found fairly easily through a political dialogue within an appropriate forum and that forum should include all political parties and other stakeholders as well." Ousted PM Laisenia Qarase.
Ousted Opposition Leader Mick Beddoes has told the EU group TROIKA that delays in taking the country forward are affecting the ordinary citizens of this country.
"We talked also about how we can move towards election date and how we needed to get all parties together in terms of dialogue. I did say that it was important for us to try to get things moving as quickly as possible towards general election – because every day that we delay in moving closer to this people are suffering. A lot of people are in a pretty desperate situation. And that situation is not going to improve unless we sort out the political situation of Fiji. And the political leaders need to make some compromises, step back a little and have a look at things in a different view – get everybody together and start moving things forward." Mick Beddoes.
The National Federation Party's Pramod Rae who also met with TROIKA said the impasse between political parties and the military can only be resolved through dialogue not overseas influence.
"Hope that they are able to present our views to the commander as we have expressed them and hope that the commander is then able to reconsider his current position and basically engage with us to arrive at a solution to resolve this impasse. There is an impasse that prevails and it needs to be resolved by dialogue. No kind of solution imposed from the outside is going to work. So the sooner we engage all political parties including the military, the better I think for everybody. There ought to be a political forum convened without any preconditions. The kind of forum that is currently being proposed is an extension of the NCBBF Charter Process. And the forum that is being mooted has an agender of electoral reform. If they simply want us to participate and give this our blessing then that’s not going to happen. If there was an unconditional political forum we would participate and assist the military to really get out of the stalemate that we’re in." Pramod Rae.
The EU delegation also met Fiji Law Society President Isireli Fa and the former Commander for the RFMF, Colonel Paul Manueli.
