Forum Foreign Ministers meet to discuss Fiji election roadmap
PRESS STATEMENT (14/08)
19th March 2008 FORUM FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTERS TO MEET IN AUCKLAND TO DISCUSS PREPARATIONS FOR ELECTIONS IN FIJI Pacific Islands Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers will meet in Auckland, New Zealand, on 26th March to discuss Fiji’s roadmap and preparations for the 2009 election. The meeting, to be hosted by the New Zealand Government, will principally discuss a Report of the Pacific Islands Forum – Fiji Joint Working Group on Fiji’s preparations for the election. The Forum- Fiji Joint Working Group on the Situation in Fiji was established in 2007 after the Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers’ meeting on 16th March in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The Working Group was established with a mandate to engage with Fiji, including on credible mechanisms to return Fiji to parliamentary democracy as soon as possible. The Working Group first met in April 2007 and has met 25 times since. It has focused on five issues: the return of Fiji to democracy, the restoration of civilian rule, upholding the 1997 Constitution, cessation of human rights abuses and addressing allegations of abuse, and support for a credible and independent anti-corruption commission. Pacific Islands Forum Leaders at their meeting in Tonga last October welcomed the undertaking by the Leader of the Fiji Interim Government to the Forum Leaders that a parliamentary election would be held in the first quarter of 2009, and called for a meeting of the Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers in 2008 to review the progress being made towards the election. The Fiji Interim Government has been invited to attend the Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Meeting in Auckland. ENDS For more information, please contact HE Mr Peter Eafeare, High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea to Fiji, Tel: (679) 330 4244, 330 4590 |
2008