Fiji regime lets three opposition parties register

Fiji's military regime today said it had given three political parties permission to contest elections scheduled for next year, the first vote since a 2006 coup in the South Pacific nation.
Fiji's Registrar of Political Parties Mohammad Saneem said the trio were the only ones to meet strict criteria for political organisations set down in a decree issued by the government earlier this year.
"As of today these parties... Will be able to operate, function, represent and hold themselves out to be political parties," he said.
Saneem declined to say how many of the 17 parties that were operating before the decree came into force had unsuccessfully applied to contest the elections, which are due to be held in September 2014.

The parties granted registration are the National Federation Party, the Fiji Labour Party and the Social Democratic Liberal Party.
Military leader Voreqe Bainimarama, who rules by decree but plans to create his own party to contest the elections, said allowing the three main opposition parties to run showed the 2014 vote would be legitimate.

"We've said all along that it's going to be a free and fair election and this is the proof," he told New Zealand's Radio Tarana.
"It's the Fijian people who'll decide if these parties have a future, not me, and that's the way it should be."

After seizing power, Bainimarama tore up Fiji's constitution and assumed the title of prime minister, curbing freedom of speech and assembly, as well as muzzling local media.
International observers, including regional powers Australia and New Zealand, have said they will be closely watching developments in Fiji to see if the elections are conducted in a free and fair manner.