Fiji's ethnically-based communal voting system will be replaced and steps taken to tackle the country's "coup culture", under a long-awaited strategy released.
The draft of the People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress was released by authorities in Fiji.
Fiji's military government, which seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2006, has said the country will not return to democracy until the charter has been accepted by the people.
Army leader and self-appointed prime minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama has championed the charter as a way to stop political corruption, weed out racism in government and revamp his country's voting system.
Previously he has said the charter would be used to stop members of the former government he overthrew from contesting fresh elections when they are held.
Although full copies of the report were not distributed electronically because of a technical glitch, a media release detailed some of the proposed changes.
Under the plan, Fiji's voting system would change from a communal one that ensured voters were divided along ethnic lines to one based solely on proportional representation.
The voting age would drop from 21 to 18 and a leadership code of conduct would be adopted.
The charter promises its measures will reduce poverty in Fiji, which currently affects 34% of the population, to negligible levels by 2015 by stepping up economic growth and new programs for the extremely poor.
It also seeks to tackle the country's so-called coup culture, which has seen Fiji governments overthrown four times since 1987.
"Ending the `coup culture' is seen as a top priority. A strategy of 12 principles has been included to end this culture," the media release said.
The charter is controversial because implementing it will require changing Fiji's constitution, which sets out the current voting system.
Under the proposed changes, the electoral system will no longer be enshrined in the constitution, but the principles of non-ethnic voting, equal franchise and proportional representation would be, according to a report.
Senior political leaders, including ousted prime minister Laisenia Qarase, have said Fiji's constitution should only be altered by democratically elected leaders.
There also have been claims that Bainimarama is using the reforms as an excuse not to hand over power to a democratically elected government.
After the charter's release, Qarase said authorities were "dreaming" if they thought they would reduce poverty to negligible levels in seven years.
He said he remained opposed to the document.
Bainimarama helps lead the council that created the draft document and 10 members of his military government are part of that 35-member group.
The document released today is expected to be open to public
consultation for two months, before it is handed to President Ratu
Josefa Iloilo.
