WELLINGTON (Radio New Zealand International / Pacific Media Watch): The NZ Council of Trade Unions says there has been scant progress towards democracy in Fiji and has called on the New Zealand government not to recognise the outcome of Fiji's elections unless there is proof that the elections are free and fair.
New Zealand's foreign minister Murray McCully is in Suva currently, on the first visit by the NZ government to Fiji since New Zealand and Australia lifted sanctions against the regime last month.
McCully has said Fiji is making good progress towards holding elections but NZCTU secretary Peter Conway has disputed this.
Conway told RNZI today that New Zealand must put conditions on diplomatic relations with the Fijian regime.
"That means that you cannot threaten media with going to prison, you cannot tell unions you cannot express a political view at all, you cannot make it so difficult for civil society organisations to be involved. Otherwise it looks like it is rigged," Conway told RNZI.
Conway said that McCully's visit is only serving to allow the regime to "keep masquerading that the election is free and fair".
The elections in September will be the first in eight years in Fiji. But over the past week, the regime has threatened an indigenous leader with jail, told a TV station to retract a broadcast of a public meeting or face a fine, put pressure on a civil society organisation to withdraw a voter education booklet and attached draconian conditions to trade unionists who want to stand as independent candidates in the election.
The regime was also criticised by the Fiji Law Society last week over a military decree which allows it to put its citizens under surveillance in the 48 hours before the elections, and sanction anyone communicating a "political message" within that period with a US$ 27 000 fine, or 10 years in jail.
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