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Work on a new constitution for Fiji will begin in September 2012, to be completed a year before elections in 2014, Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama said today while outlining a roadmap to take Fiji to elections.
Bainimarama said the constitution will be derived from recommendations in the People’s Charter and promote racial equality.
He said the voting age will be 18 years as opposed to 21 in the 1997 Constitution abrogated by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo on April 10 this year.
"The new constitution must include provisions that will entrench common and equal citizenry, it must not have ethnic based voting; the voting age shall be 18; and it must have systems that hold elected governments accountable with more checks and balances."
Public consultation on the formulation of the document will involve political parties, civil society, NGOs and common citizens.
He said the consultations will include discussion on the “size of the new Parliament, the appropriateness of a bi-cameral system, the term of office of a government and systems of checks and balances”.
Bainimarama called on the international community to help his government implement the reforms.
He said the new constitution must be in place at least a year before the new Parliament convenes by September 2014, the timeframe set by Iloilo for Fiji to return to democratic rule.
"This will allow all Fijians and parliamentary candidates ample time to familiarise themselves with the provisions of the constitution.
"The constitution shall be translated into the vernacular and it shall be made available to the members of the public in pocket size."
