Fiji court demands military PM sacking and immediate elections [UPDATED]

[UPDATE-- 2:00PM:
Events are moving rapidly in Fiji this morning following the Appeal court declarations.

FijiLive reporting last night:

Fiji effectively has no Prime Minister, no ministers and no Government in place, says interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama. Bainimarama made the comment moments ago in a national televised address.

He confirmed that the President Ratu Josefa Iloilo will soon make a decision following today’s Court of Appeal ruling that Laisenia Qarase’s dismissal from office was unlawful and that a caretaker PM be appointed.

But today the President has announced the abrogation of the 1997 constitution (upon which the court ruling was based - see below) and the sacking of the judiciary!

Fiji's President Ratu Josefa Iloilo has abrogated the 1997 Constitution following yesterday's ruling by the Court of Appeal that the interim government was unlawful.

In an address still being relayed from Government House, Iloilo has revoked all apppoinments to the judiciary and has said that new appointments will be announced.

And who advised the President to do this? I have no doubt that slimy Attorney-General (who often fronts for the regime) has his lawyer's paws all over this - cynically using the court's reasoning to do a coup all over again - this time "more legally" (if I can use that term) so there can be no judicial come-back. No judiciary at all if you believe the wording of some news reports.

If they had any commitment to democracy and the rule of law they would have used the court's decision to get out of this mess rather than get themselves deeper into it. It's just a power grab to continue the power grab that was the coup. No matter what pieces of paper the A-G is putting in front of the President to sign it does not alter those facts.

RNZ reporting this afternoon:

Fiji Times Online reports that President Iloilo and will appoint an interim government to rule for the next five years to implement the necessary reforms required for "true democratic and parliamentary elections".

Insane. --UPDATE ENDS]

The appeal court has reversed the High Court decision that said the President legitimately appointed Commodore Bainimarama as Prime Minister, dissolved parliament and so on. Now the Appeal Court has determined that the earlier reasoning was wrong and that there really was no credible force majeure circumstance and the move to approve the military's action was beyond the competence of the President's powers of state.

So they have declared the constitutional mechanisms to effect the coup were unlawful (like when Bainimarama appointed his doctor as the Prime Minister) and the key instruments, invalid. However - and done for purposes of certainty and practicality only - the actual actions and laws and so on done afterwards by these people and people instructed by them are valid. In NZ law we have a legal defence of 'obedience to de facto law' - and that principle is what we see articulated from the Appellate bench who said authorities must go along with it until the courts declare otherwise. It could get quite tricky to unpick the illegal parts from the fabric of events and the normal administration of the government, but they leave the door open to that eventuality.

They recommend the President should sack Bainimarama (forthwith one must assume) and replace him with someone who will advise him to call an election immediately. Now they didn't name who ought to be appointed interim PM; but the fact they didn't declare that Qarase is still PM does not legitimise in any way the coup - and he certainly is not excluded from the appointment.
To the fools in this country and in Fiji who persist, against every piece of evidence, in thinking that a military coup and having a military government that rules for two and a half years and still refuses to name an election date is to be preferred to the rule of law, adherence to the constitution, and democracy - they are deluded.

Even if the electoral system was "racist" - the reform debate cannot be conducted at the point of a gun, without any timetable, with the media under physical threat from the military government. Having a coup in order to change the electoral legislation and constitution (the people's Charter bandwagon) is a delaying tactic and a smokescreen at best and at worst a means to screw the scrum to favour the backers of the coup and the political collaborateurs (now legion). And the bizarre argument that the purpose of the coup and Bainimarama's objective in leading it is to sort out corruption is just laughable. Bainimarama is up to his eyeballs in it - acting as PM and Finance Minister, covering up his role in the barracks killings (the imminent criminal action over that being speculated as the real trigger for his coup, in the same way that George Speight's coup was precipitated by criminal charges being laid against him), his thugs meting out extra-judicial punishments, his appointment of his military cronies into the Police and other offices... corruption aplenty. If Qarase was so corrupt what's happening with his trial for corruption? Few would argue his government was clean or competent, but let us note the opaque goings-on surrounding the military's allegations about Qarase do not inspire confidence, either that the facts are known or that justice will be done to uncover them. Foreign domiciled businessman, Ballu Khan, for example was linked to Qarase's corruption case - he was assaulted in police custody and then released.

Like all military coup leaders he has a huge ego, an overblown sense of his own destiny - and a thuggish streak. He's an oaf. But he doesn't have the personality of a Rabuka to survive a transition back to democracy - that would involve an election and parties and politics and arts at which oafs perform poorly - better to never have one - the play book for these types through history. And fools like Slater need to file themselves under their own "idiocy" tag: firstly for supporting an illegal military regime run by a clumsy thug, and secondly for being naive enough to think that this thug who has gone two and a half years without calling an election and who has broken his own commitments to a timetable to elections and who says they will not have one this year and refuses to say when they will ever have another election again can in any way be entrusted to swiftly bring about democracy.

A democracy with a largely representative, if imperfect, electoral system is surely better than a military dictatorship which refuses to return to any form of democracy.

Scans: FijiLive. H/T: No Right Turn.