Government Rejects ‘1 Percent’ Claim on Constitutional Review Participation

The Fijian Government has clarified that the 3,873 people recorded as attending face-to-face consultations do not represent the total number of participants in the constitutional review process.

The clarification follows a Fiji Sun front-page report titled “Only 1 percent took part.”

The Government said the figure cited by the Constitution Review Commission (CRC) refers specifically to physical attendance at consultation venues and does not include other forms of participation.

The CRC visited 105 venues and received 1,220 submissions, comprising 832 individual and 388 collective submissions through oral, written, virtual and online channels.

The Government said collective views were also submitted through civil society organisations, religious groups, professional bodies, trade unions, political parties, academic institutions, traditional structures and government agencies.

It also pointed to submissions through the Great Council of Chiefs, which represented views from various provinces, while stressing that representative figures should not be interpreted as individual endorsement by every person represented.

The Government said the same principle applied to institutional submissions, where organisations presented collective views through authorised representatives.

It acknowledged that 3,873 people attended face-to-face consultations but said using that figure as the overall participation figure does not capture the full consultation record.

The constitutional process will now move to Parliament, with debate scheduled to begin on September 28, 2026.

Members of Parliament will scrutinise the CRC report and recommendations before the process potentially moves to a referendum.