FIJI’S Constitution remain valid despite a legal challenge by Cabinet, the country’s Supreme Court ruled this hour.
But it has declared that amendment provisions in the document are unfair and can be changed.
“We will not recognise the amendment provisions as they presently stand,” Chief Justice Salesi Temo said.
“We will recognise them as legally effective when interpreted to reduce the majority requirements to workable levels.’’
Temo said two thirds of all members of parliament and 50% or a simple majority in a national referendum would be sufficient to amend the Constitution.
Long seen as iron-clad, the Supreme Court effectively stripped the 2013 Constitution of its protection and opened it to public scrutiny and possible amendment.
“It is our view that the qualified recognition we give to the 2013 Constitution empowers the people of Fiji to undertake such a change as they think appropriate, making change feasible, but not making it so easy that it can too readily be affected by one interest group or another,’’ Temo said.
The court’s decision brings to an end the 1997 Constitution, which was abrogated by former President Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu on Good Friday in 2009.
After the abrogation, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum commissioned a review of the 1997 Constitution, headed by Professor Yash Ghai.
But Ghai’s recommendations were rejected by Bainimarama and Khaiyum, who then produced the 2013 document, which political commentators contend was forced upon Fiji’s electorate.