Event: Fiji’s elections and transition to democracy
On the eve of Fiji’s first general elections since the 2006 military coup, the Lowy Institute invites you to join us for a special panel discussion on Fiji’s transition to democracy. Seven parties and one independent candidate will contest the 17 September elections for a 50 member parliament. Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has made far-reaching changes to Fiji and hopes to lead his Fiji First party to victory. In these elections, over a third of Fiji’s registered voters will vote for the first time in these elections, creating a special focus on issues affecting Fiji’s youth in the campaign.
The outcome of the election will be critical in determining the nature of Fiji’s transition to democracy, influencing Fiji’s economic development, and shaping Fiji’s role in the Pacific Islands region. Following Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s re-engagement with Fiji in February, Australia is co-leading the multinational observer group for the elections and hoping for a restoration of full ties with a democratic Fiji after the elections.
The Lowy Institute’s Jenny Hayward-Jones will be joined by Professor Satish Chand from the University of New South Wales, Ciaran O’Toole from Conciliation Resources, and Mereoni Chung from the Fiji Youth for Democracy movement.
Dr Satish Chand is Professor of Finance in the School of Business at the University of New South Wales and based at the University of New South Wales in Canberra. Professor Chand, who was born and grew up in Fiji, is also an Adjunct Professor at the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University. His research interests include labour migration, fragile states, and the challenges of development.
Ciaran O'Toole is the Fiji Program Director for Conciliation Resources; a peacebuilding non-governmental organisation based in London. Conciliation Resources works with conflict affected people in Africa, the former Soviet Union, and the Pacific. Ciaran has spent over six years working on political transition and peacebuilding issues in Fiji, both while living in Fiji for three years and most recently from his base in London.
Mereoni Chung is a founding member of Fiji Youth for Democracy, a small movement of young Fijians encouraging peers to get involved in Fiji's democratisation. Before moving to Australia for post-graduate study in 2014, Mereoni was the young women's officer at the Fiji Women's Rights Movement, and before that a project officer at the Citizens' Constitutional Forum. Like many of her contemporaries Mereoni will be voting for the first time in the 17 September elections.
