Report: Gov't suggests delayed vote

By RAY LILLEY

AP Writer

SUVA, Fiji (AP) — Fiji’s interim government has recommended delaying democratic elections until August, saying extra time is needed to give indigenous parties time to organize and defeat ethnic Indian parties, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The Fiji Sun said the recommendation was made last week to a special meeting of indigenous traditional chiefs. Government officials declined comment on the report’s contents.

The country is divided politically between indigenous Fijians and a large Indian minority. Nationalist gunmen toppled the country’s first Indian prime minister last May.

The chiefs are due to select a new president when they resume meeting Tuesday. They failed to agree on ways of returning the country to constitutional democracy during two days of deliberations last week.

The three-month term of office of acting president Ratu Josefa Iloilo, the favored candidate according to observers, expires March 15.

The interim government stressed to the chiefs that the five indigenous Fijian parties need time to resolve their positions if they are to beat Indian-dominated parties, the newspaper said.

The People’s Coalition, led by Mahendra Chaudhry, the first Indian elected prime minister of Fiji, was ousted by gunmen who stormed Parliament on May 19 and held legislators captive for 55 days.

A Court of Appeals ruling earlier this month declared that the military-backed interim government of Prime Minister Laisenia Quarase, which took power after the coup, is illegal.