UN secretary-general welcomes Fiji polls

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the peaceful conduct of the parliamentary polls in Fiji.

In a statement Friday, Ban commended the people of Fiji for exercising their constitutional right to vote, Fiji Times reported.

He also encouraged people to maintain the peaceful atmosphere throughout the rest of the electoral process and to resolve any disputes through the established legal process.

Ban said he had hoped that this election will mark an important step forward for the country's transition to democracy.

In elections, held Sep 17, the Fiji First party, led by Prime Minister Voreqe Frank Bainimarama, won 32 seats in the 50-member parliament. The Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) won 15 seats while the National Federation Party (NFP) won three seats in the first general election in the country since a 2006 military coup.

Fiji is home to a large Indian-origin population with the ethnic Indians comprising 37 percent of Fiji's population of around 900,000.

Most of the ethnic Indians are descendants of indentured labourers who were brought from India between 1879 and 1916 to work in the country's sugarcane plantations.