Fijian opposition parties today accused the ruling regime of stacking the deck against them by changing regulations for the general elections in September.
Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry said the "preposterous" tinkering was damaging the credibility of the September 17 vote, the first opportunity Fijians have had to cast a ballot since a military coup in 2006.
"It is now manifestly clear that the entire electoral process lacks integrity," he said. "It is impossible to expect free, fair and credible elections with such shenanigans taking place all the time."
Chaudhry, who became Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister in 1999 but was ousted in a coup a year later, made the remarks after electoral officials said all candidates must have been resident in Fiji for at least two years.
He said it was an arbitrary condition that showed the electoral process was being manipulated to suit the agenda of the regime, which is running in the election as the FijiFirst Party.
"Just days before nominations are due, rules regarding qualification for candidates to contest the election are suddenly changed -- how can candidates and political parties plan ahead if this keeps happening?" he said.
National Federation party leader Biman Prasad described the amendment as "shameful" and said his organisation had been forced to withdraw three candidates because of it.
"(It) gives FijiFirst an unfair advantage over other political parties in the country," he told the Fiji Times.
The government last year lifted the membership threshold for registering a political party from 128 to 5,000 and banned union officials from political parties, a move the International Trade Union Confederation said was "an affront to democratic principles".
Coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama is expected to win the election. Rights group Amnesty International this week accused him of presiding over a "climate of fear" in the South Pacific nation.
