Fiji PM Rabuka delays vote on Constitution Bill after mounting pressure

Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has given in to public pressure and decided to extend the timeline for a major constitutional reform process only a day after he confirmed that he would table a bill to change the country's constitution.

In a complete U-turn from his position on tabling the controversial Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2026 this week, Rabuka announced on the floor of parliament on Monday that the Special Parliamentary Committee on the bill would "table its review report at a later sitting date".

The prime minister did not provide a date for when that would be, stating only that the final report would be presented back to parliament in "due time".

"During the extension or extended period, we intend to listen to more submissions from the public, and also give time to our very hard-working parliamentary staff, who have been supporting us in the collection, collation, and compilation of the final report to be presented back to parliament in due time," Rabuka said.

He had previously told RNZ Pacific that he had not announced an election date - which has a hard deadline of 6 Febraury 2027 - due to the constitutional reform process that was running in parallel.

Rabuka also replaced his coalition partner and leader of the National Federation Party (NFP), Biman Prasad, as a member of the committee after Prasad had announced on Saturday that the party would vote against the bill.

"Constitutional legitimacy cannot be sacrificed for political expediency," Prasad said over the weekend.

"There should be no shortcuts or fast-tracking of any constitutional process.

"We will no longer participate in the special parliamentary committee nor will I be a signatory to the report of the committee to parliament next week," he said.

Rabuka needed a two-thirds majority - at least 36 votes - to pass the bill through a 53-seat parliament following the passing of two MPs from the original 55-member parliament.

With the NFP and the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) both having objections about the process and the contents of the bill, it meant Rabuka was not likely to get the numbers required for the bill to pass the third reading.

The decision to extend the process also means that Rabuka's decision to announce a referendum date for 9 December has hit a wall.