Municipal Elections in Fiji: Legal and Practical Considerations
Channel: International IDEA
Date: 2023-05-15

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance hosted an online panel event, “Webinar 2: Municipal Elections in Fiji: Legal and Practical Considerations”, on Tuesday, 11 May 2023, from 9:00-10:30 GMT +12.

Fiji has experienced a challenging political history marked by four coups and political instability. The last local government elections were held in 2005, and since then, municipal councils have been run by appointed administrators. The local government structure in Fiji consists of four divisions and 13 municipalities, each with its own council. The councils are responsible for a range of services, including garbage collection, town planning, and road maintenance.

The new Fijian government intends to hold elections in September 2023, however, there are concerns that this may not be a realistic timeline to hold local government elections from scratch. The 2013 Constitution does not have any provision for Local Government Elections. In this respect, International IDEA commissioned a paper to consider existing legislation.

The paper seeks to identify possible gaps in legislation, areas in which legal interpretation and applicability are unclear and where more than one valid approach may be taken, and additional areas where political consideration of the existing legal framework may be valuable.  Its underlying principle is that for forthcoming local elections to be successful and recognized as legitimate and credible, it is important that their framework is robust and accepted as widely as possible.  The paper presents both legal and political questions in the hope that they may be helpful for Fijian stakeholders.