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# ONE LAST THING. THE STARTER PISTOL FOR THE ELECTION HAS BEEN FIRED, PRIME MINISTER. YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE RULES IN MID-RACE

Posted on June 5, 2026 Leave a Comment

They’re off but the Coalition wants a reset

The Coalition has been eviscerated by Fiji’s only independent think tank, Dialogue Fiji, for suggesting that the electoral laws can be changed after the official campaign period for the coming election has already begun.

The points it makes are entirely valid. Sitiveni Rabuka has had close to four years to reform the electoral system and as with everything else, the terminal dysfunction that has come to characterise the Coalition means it has been left until the last moment.

It is simply too late. The race to the election has already started and as Dialogue Fiji rightly points out, it would violate every democratic principle for the rules to now change before election day.

The Coalition has had its chance and blew it. Though as Grubsheet has long reported, we never really believed that Rolex Rambo himself wanted the system changed. Because as the last “big man” standing, d’Hondt suits him personally just fine. Which may well be why he has simply let the clock run out.

They don’t call him the “Snake” for nothing. Master of the slither.

———————

A pointed letter to the Chair of the Electoral Commission, Justice Usaia Ratuvili, from Dialogue Fiji’s Executive Director, Nilesh Lal.

And now, I’m finally off. No, really.

Within hours, Grubsheet will be sedated – a blessed relief for me under the circumstances and doubtless my critics too.

Vinaka vakalevu to those readers who have posted best wishes. Your messages are much appreciated.

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About Grubsheet

Graham Davis
Grubsheet Feejee is the blogsite of Graham Davis, an award-winning journalist turned communications consultant who was the Fijian Government’s principal communications advisor for six years from 2012 to 2018 and continued to work on Fiji’s global climate and oceans campaign up until the end of the decade.

 

Fiji-born to missionary parents and a dual Fijian-Australian national, Graham spent four decades in the international media before returning to Fiji to work full time in 2012. He reported from many parts of the world for the BBC, ABC, SBS, the Nine and Seven Networks and Sky News and wrote for a range of newspapers and magazines in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

 

Graham launched Grubsheet Feejee in 2011 and suspended writing for it after the Fijian election of 2014, by which time he was working at the heart of government. But the website continued to attract hits as a background resource on events in Fiji in the transition back to parliamentary democracy.

 

Grubsheet relaunches in 2020 at one of the most critical times in Fijian history, with the nation reeling from the Covid-19 crisis and Frank Bainimarama’s government shouldering the twin burdens of incumbency and economic disintegration.

 

Grubsheet’s sole agenda is the national interest; the strengthening of Fiji’s ties with the democracies; upholding equal rights for all citizens; government that is genuinely transparent and free of corruption and nepotism; and upholding Fiji’s service to the world in climate and oceans advocacy and UN Peacekeeping.

 

Comments are welcome and you can contact me in the strictest confidence at grubsheetfeedback@gmail.com

 

(Feejee is the original name for Fiji - a derivative of the indigenous Viti and the Tongan Fisi - and was widely used until the late 19th century)

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