Unity Fiji’s Narube responds to SODELPA claims by Baba
THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM ALLOWS MINOR PARTIES TO HAVE A SAY, IF THEY CAN REACH THE FIVE PER CENT THRESHOLD.
Unity Fiji Party leader, Savenaca Narube says the capability and strength of a political party in this year’s elections will be decided by voters and not politicians. His comments were in response to a statement by SODELPA awareness manager, Jale Baba, during a consultation in Yako Village last week. Mr Baba told villagers that new small parties would always remain moderate and undecided adding that these were the ones that confused people during elections.
While reminding villagers not to be swayed by the agenda of small political parties because these were the ones that lost during the 2014 General Election he urged them to vote for a political party that had the interest of the iTaukei people.
In response, Mr Narube said those who referred to the size of the party as an election issue were being presumptuous that the pattern of votes would be the same as in 2014.
“Voters not politicians will decide, which political party is bigger in this election. Nearly four years have elapsed since the last elections and voters now know the performance of the political parties in Parliament,” he said.
“People are already voting with their feet as confirmed by the results of independent polls that showed that the support of all parties in Parliament was declining.” Independent surveys, Mr Narube said had indicated that a number of undecided voters were persistently higher than the support of any single party.
“It is a clear indication that voters not only want change, but they want something better, something credible and something new. The party that these undecided voters will vote for will win the election. Voters are much more discerning than political parties give them credit for,” he added. The former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji urged voters to focus on the important issue of leadership.
“Everything else rises and falls from it. Fiji must get this right in this election,” Mr Narube said.
“I therefore urge voters to vote on the accomplishments and attributes of the leaders of the political parties.
“Unity Fiji will focus squarely on leadership, finding innovative solutions to our problems and uniting all the people through our shared vision of Unity in Diversity.”
“I repeat my plea to the people to register and vote in this election. In my view, this is the most critical election in our history. Please vote wisely and make your vote count.”
Edited by Percy Kean
The exchange between SODELPA and Unity Fiji underscores the tension that will intensify between the large and small parties before the 2018 general election.
Unity Fiji Party leader Savenaca Narube and SODELPA’s Awareness Manager Jale Baba have traded verbal blows.
Mr Baba warned Yako villagers in Nadi to beware of small parties because they confused people. But Mr Narube said the voters would decide the outcome of the election, not the politicians. (Full story, page 4).
The competition for votes will fragment the electorate.
Research shows that one dimension of political party systems is fragmentation - the degree to which votes are scattered across minor parties. Fragmentation relates to the number of political parties competing in an election and to the willingness of voters to vote for them. It can be a concern because it can affect the stability of governments and their ability to govern.
Under the Fijian electoral law, the small parties must get five per cent of the total votes cast to qualify for seats.
That’s a high threshold given the size of our electoral landscape. In many countries that have a similar electoral system like proportional representation the threshold is lower between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent.
The lower threshold gives rise to a proliferation of small parties. It can lead to difficulties for one party getting an outright majority. It opens the door to coalitions which can be very messy.
The high threshold gives that stability to the process.
Because this is the second general election, there will be a lot of movement of voters across parties.
This could continue into the third general election and even beyond before it reaches an equilibrium - when voters become settled with their respective parties. Mr Baba sounds desperate telling voters not to bother about the small parties – they may not achieve the five per cent threshold. But we cannot completely rule out the small parties from reaching the threshold although recent public opinion polls show otherwise.
The small parties could hold the balance of power just as Winston Peters, the New Zealand First leader, did in the NZ elections.
In the existing election framework this can happen.
19, 4, 4,24.
Imagine this possible scenario, although it is unlikely to happen in this election, that SODELPA wins 19 seats, National Federation Party gets four seats, Fiji Labour Party secures two seats and Unity Fiji wins two seats and FijiFirst gets 24. SODELPA and FijiFirst will reach out to the small parties to form the government. The small parties will become the power broker. The bigger parties become their “concubines.”
In the last election among the smaller parties, the NFP won three seats after winning 5.45 per cent of the votes cast. 500,078 voted out of the 591,000 registered voters. The People’s Democratic Party scored 3.20 per cent and Fiji Labour Party got 2.35 per cent, One Fiji Party got 1.18 per cent, and Fiji United Freedom Party had 0.22 per cent. Independent Rashika Deo got 0.21 per cent.
In this election more than 631,000 voters have been registered so far. HOPE is the latest party to join the race. More voters are expected to register. So there are more votes to go around for all parties.
Voters not politicians will decide, which political party is bigger in this election. Nearly four years have elapsed since the last elections and voters now know the performance of the political parties in Parliament Savenaca Narube Unity Fiji Party leader