Transcript
The political parties have been warned to keep their campaigns clean and told they're under close scrutiny with three weeks to go until the general election.
The authorities called a press conference on Friday and expressed concern about some of the talk around race and religion on social media, in press articles and campaign meetings.
The Director of the Fiji Human Rights Anti-Discrimination Commission Ashwin Raj said the warnings were important given Fiji's past.
"Our history shows they easily descend into violence. We've seen what happened in 2000, we've seen what happened in 1987. We don't want to see a repeat of that. We don't want to sit and passively wait for things to descend to that level before we start acting so this is why we're being proactive."
Mr Raj says it's important to distinguish race from racism in Fiji's very fraught political environment where political fault lines run deep.
"We don't really talk about race and ethnicity in isolation. We're of course talking about it in terms of the fact that one community's preponderant over another, in terms of access and equity and all of that and when you start consciously then instil fear in people, you know engender that fear ..."'
Fiji's Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem issued a reminder of the Electoral Act's stiff penalties for those using language or publishing material inciting hatred or violence, or which may amount to racial or religious vilification.
"Any person who contravenes (s. 116) subsections three or four commits an offence and shall be liable upon conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to to a term of imprisonment not exceeding ten years or to both."
The authorities warned parties they were under close scrutiny during campaigning and urged the public to report any incitement which has the potential to descend into violence.
"Political parties need to show and demonstrate that they are taking ownership of these important protections for the voter and by developing their own codes of conduct, developing their own rules of procedure around discipline."
Fiji's Independent Commission Against Corruption also warned it would come down hard on offenders.
The election take place on 14 November.
