in a step that could help push the coup-prone country back toward democracy, an envoy said Friday. The proposed political forum is being organized by the British Commonwealth and would be the first such meeting of Fijian party leaders since the military seized control of the Pacific Island country in a December 2006 coup.
"There is broad support from all the political leaders that I've seen to participate in this forum and to enter into political dialogue," Commonwealth envoy Paul Reeves told reporters in the capital, Suva.
Among participants will be ousted premier Laisenia Qarase and his indigenous Fijian SDL Party; the main opposition Fiji Labor Party and its leader Mahendra Chaudry, also ousted in a coup in 2000; and other minority party leaders.
Reeves warned that the Commonwealth - a bloc formed by Britain and its former colonies - would insist Fiji hold elections by next March, as promised by military leader and Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama.
In recent months Bainimarama has said he wants to root out corruption and alter the "racist" electoral system prior to holding a ballot to return to democracy.
Critics - including the governments of Australia and New Zealand - say Bainimarama's comments suggest he is not genuine about his promise to restore democracy.
"The Commonwealth is still adhering to the March 2009 date for an election and the Commonwealth would need to hear ... good arguments to come off that understanding," Reeves said.
Reeves, a former New Zealand head of state, helped draw up Fiji's 1997 Constitution, under which indigenous Fijians, ethnic Indians and other races vote in separate race-based constituencies.
Bainimarama has said this system must change before Fiji can hold free and fair elections.
Reeves said the dialogue should include other issues than just electoral reform, a hint that topics such as the causes of Fiji's political instability could be on the talks' agenda. The nation has suffered four coups since 1987.
Reeves said he will prepare a draft outline for the forum, for consideration by Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, and will seek to have it endorsed by both Fiji's interim government and the political leaders who will take part in the meetings.
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