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Frank Bainimarama - Source: ONE News -
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Fiji's military ruler Frank Bainimarama has thumbed his nose at the Commonwealth and told it to kick his country out of its ministerial group.
Bainimarama, in power since overthrowing the democratic government in December 2006, has rejected a new six-month deadline set by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to hold an election, saying Fiji will not go to the polls this year.
The self-appointed leader said he was expecting Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma to phone him soon to discuss the group's decision to suspend Fiji if it did not restore democracy.
"I will tell him in no uncertain terms nothing's going to change," he told Auckland's Radio Tarana.
"If they want to suspend Fiji this coming December, they can do it now.
"No one is going to interfere in what we are trying to do, not New Zealand, not Australia, not anybody else. Nothing is going to be done.
"There's going to be no election."
The CMAG ruling requires that Bainimarama order an election in the next six months to bring the country back into line.
"The group deplored the fact that Fiji remained in contravention
of Commonwealth values and principles," said a statement issued
after a meeting in London of ministers and representatives
from
nine Commonwealth countries.
A separate deadline set by the Pacific Islands Forum members in Port Moresby in January requires that a poll date be set by May 1.
However, Bainimarama has repeatedly said he wants to reform the electoral system, a complicated process requiring changes to Fiji's constitution, before an election would be held.
He told the radio station that going to an election now was "not going to serve any purpose".
"It's probably going to make things worse for the people of
Fiji," Bainimarama said.
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