Fiji is heading in the direction of a hung parliament, with 99 % of the vote tallied and no celebration coming away with a transparent majority.
The previous opposition Social Democratic Liberal Celebration (SODELPA) is in negotiations with the FijiFirst authorities and Folks’s Alliance over which it should assist within the probably case of a hung parliament.
Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s FijiFirst celebration is forward within the tally with 42 per cent of the vote whereas the Folks’s Alliance and the Nationwide Federation Celebration – which have already mentioned they might be a part of forces – sit at 36 and 9 per cent respectively.
SODELPA holds 5.15 % of the vote, which is near the 5 % threshold wanted to get a member elected to the expanded 55-member parliament.
The celebration’s basic secretary, Lenaitai Duru, mentioned it will enter the second spherical of negotiations with each events on Sunday.
Duru mentioned non-negotiables embrace their precedence Indigenous and schooling insurance policies.
The celebration campaigned on free tertiary schooling and allocating $US159 million ($A238 million) a 12 months for Indigenous affairs, a greater than tenfold enhance within the authorities’s finances allocation for the ministry this monetary 12 months.
The overall secretary mentioned it wasn’t hypocritical for the celebration to be negotiating with the federal government after operating on a “time for change” platform.
“It is not hypocritical if you happen to result in that change,” he mentioned.
Duru mentioned the celebration was sitting within the center and ready on the respective provides to determine what’s greatest for the nation.
However he was quoted in native media firing again at Folks’s Alliance deputy Lynda Tabuya for calling SODELPA a “haunted home” after she jumped ship following the management spill.
‘Now not haunted’
“When she left she took the horror along with her. We’re now not haunted, we’re able to type the following authorities,” Duru was quoted as saying by the Fijian Broadcasting Company on Sunday.
“Some folks went out of their method to harm, destroy and destroy the celebration however we’re nonetheless standing.”
However ought to the remaining ballots disqualify SODELPA, it will all however mark the top of Bainimarama’s practically 16 years in energy after taking management through a coup in 2006 and changing into prime minister the next 12 months.
Folks’s Alliance chief Sitiveni Rabuka, himself a former coup chief turned prime minister, beforehand led SODELPA to the 2018 election.
He carved Bainimarama’s majority right down to 50.02 per cent and drew an virtually 12 per cent swing in the direction of the celebration within the course of.
Rabuka was then ousted by present chief Viliame Gavoka, resulting in him establishing the Folks’s Alliance which drew 9 extra members throughout.
Rabuka and three different opposition events have been vocally alleging issues with the voting system and mentioned they’d misplaced religion within the Fijian Elections Workplace after falling behind.
The Multinational Observer Group mentioned it has not noticed “any important irregularities or points throughout pre-polling, postal voting or election day voting”.
Claims of poll fraud persist
However Rabuka and leaders from three different opposition events proceed to allege voting irregularities and doable fraud.
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem accused the opposition events of spouting conspiracy theories concerning the election with none proof and mentioned they have been making an attempt to discredit the election earlier than the ultimate outcomes had been tallied.
“I wish to urge everyone to have the persistence for the outcomes knowledge entry to finish,” he mentioned.
“Upon getting the outcomes, you then go round doing no matter you need to do. We have now no worries about that.
“If somebody will not be proud of the outcome, there’s a authorized course of that follows.”
- This text was made doable by means of the Melbourne Press Membership’s Michael Gordon Journalism Fellowship Program.
-AAP
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