Voting culture in Fiji is very dynamic, says Prof Ratuva

THE FijiFirst party lost the 2022 General Election because of their “authoritarian, non-inclusive, controlling and vindictive style of leadership,” claims Fijian academic, director of the University of Canterbury’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Professor Steven Ratuva.

When asked what could have some of the contributing factors to the FijiFirst party not being able to win outright at the polls, he said the writing was on the wall for the Voreqe Bainimarama-led party for some time.

“The voting culture in Fiji is very dynamic and reflects the significant shifts in political power and loyalty as we have seen over the years,” Prof Ratuva said.

“The FFP won around 60 per cent of the votes in 2014 and in 2018 it came down to just over 50 per cent and in 2022 it came right down to 42 per cent.

“The swing votes often make a difference and in this case, it has been around 10 per cent.

“That was why I predicted in one of The Fiji Times interviews earlier this year that no party would win outright and FFP would need a coalition to come back to power.

“FFP’s challenge was how to make sure that they retained the 10 per cent swing votes but this was not possible.”

Prof Ratuva said what happened to the FijiFirst party was nothing new.

“As often happens with incumbent ruling parties, the FFP appeal was beginning to wane and in addition voters deserted FFP because of what they saw as their authoritarian, non-inclusive, controlling and vindictive style of leadership.

“People could hardly openly complain and criticise the government as one would expect in a democracy, fearing the consequences.

“They waited silently to express their voices at the ballot box and it worked.”