Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama and political rival Sitiveni Rabuka are predicted to each win 26 seats in parliament.
Final results show Fiji’s general election deadlocked, no incumbents Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama as well as his political rival Sitiveni Rabuka is aiming for a majority in parliament.
Bainimarama’s Fiji First party and the coalition led by his rival Rabuka are expected to win 26 seats each in the 55-seat parliament, according to a Fiji Elections Office vote tally posted online. on Sunday.
The deadly hot results covered up a chaotic election campaign marked by allegations of fraud and calls for military intervention.
The drama takes place when Opposition leader and two-time coup plotter Rabuka claims the vote counting process is “secret”. He was then questioned by police after calling for the military to intervene.
Fiji’s military commander on Friday said his forces would not intervene. International election observers also said on Friday that they had not seen any significant irregularities in voting, adding that the anomaly was initially with an app displaying the results. has been remedied.
The government will now be formed through what could be a lengthy process of negotiations, with both Rabuka and Bainimarama – who have seized power through a 2006 coup and later legitimized the government. his government with won the election outright in 2014 and 2018 – flirted with the Social Democrats, the party that holds three seats and now the balance of power.
The Social Democrats are led by deeply devout Viliame Gavoka, the former president of the Fijian Rugby League, who was at odds with both Bainimarama and Rabuka.
Fiji is a small country of only 900,000 people, but the results have regional significance. Bainimarama has developed close to Chinawhile Rabuka and Gavoka suggested loosening ties with Beijing.
The Social Democrats earlier this week joined a coalition of five other political parties calling for an immediate halt to vote counting and an investigation.
Rabuka’s People’s Coalition wrote to the Commander of the Armed Forces of Fiji Ro Jone Kalouniwai last week expressing concern about the election process.
In response, Kalouniwai told broadcaster FBC news on Friday that the military would put its trust in the election process and not participate.
The co-chair of the Multinational Observer Group, Australian politician Rebekha Sharkie, told reporters in Suva on Friday that the counting of votes was being conducted “in a systematic, methodical and transparent manner. White”.
Technical problems with the app used by the public to track interim results caused distrust among opposition parties when the app showed a People’s Union Party candidate in the lead. before it is taken offline. When it came back online, it showed Fiji First in the lead.
The election office said there was an error in transferring the data to the app and it was not used for counting votes.
