SUVA (Fiji), Dec 17 — Fiji’s election count was tightening today following a tumultuous night for opposition leader Sitiveni Rabuka, who police called in for questioning after he urged the military to intervene.
Two-time coup leader and former prime minister Rabuka, 74, is challenging incumbent Frank Bainimarama, 68, an ex-navy commodore who has won two elections since first seizing control of the island nation in a 2006 putsch.
Rabuka’s People’s Alliance party and its coalition partner held a 44 to 42 per cent lead over Bainimarama’s Fiji First party this afternoon, with more than half the country’s 2,071 stations having submitted their results.
But Bainimarama — who has been silent since votes were cast Wednesday — is widely expected to move in front when booths in urbanised areas submit their tallies, with a final result anticipated by tomorrow.
Detectives summoned Rabuka to the Criminal Investigations Department late yesterday after he repeatedly complained about “anomalies” in the results and asked the military to step in.
People’s Alliance general-secretary Sakiasi Ditoka was also questioned.
There was a sizable police presence outside the department overnight, with officers setting up temporary roadblocks.
Rabuka said today he believed he had been summoned due to his request to the military, which has “overall” responsibility for maintaining stability under Fiji’s 2013 constitution.
“They tried to paint a picture of a person, a high-profile person, making a statement like that — and how that would impact on the people,” he told reporters.
Election-night ‘anomaly’
The aftermath of Wednesday’s poll has grown increasingly tense since an election-night “anomaly” knocked results offline for four hours.
Opposition parties led by Rabuka have said the incident cast doubt on the entire election process and that counting should be stopped immediately.
“In view of the substantial breach of counting, we demand an immediate cessation of the current electoral process and to be replaced with a fresh manual count of all votes,” Rabuka told the country’s election supervisor in a letter written Thursday and released today.
Rabuka’s hopes of stopping the count faded yesterday, however, when military commander Jone Kalouniwai rebuffed his plea for the army to get involved.
The answer was “no”, Rabuka said, “he will not be drawn into it”.
International observers have expressed no concerns about the conduct of the vote.
Rebekha Sharkie, an election observer and Australian member of parliament, said no “significant irregularities or issues” had been observed during pre-polling, postal voting or the casting of ballots on election day.
While the vote is seen as a test of Fiji’s often-fragile democracy, there is a regional significance as well — Bainimarama has been close to China, while Rabuka is likely to distance himself from Beijing.
Four Fijian prime ministers have been toppled by coups in the past 35 years. — AFP
