Kreetika Kumar 
The future actions and decisions hinge on whether FijiFirst Members in Parliament choose to remain part of the party, which is the primary issue.
Academic director of parliamentary law at the University of Tasmania, Richard Herr, says if they allow themselves to go forward with deregistration, then the members sitting in Parliament, have the choice of becoming independents or joining another party.
However, Herr says that they can join one of the parties in Parliament or resign and simply leave Parliament, which will force a by-election.
“If Fiji First is deregistered and if any of the current members in Parliament were to leave the Parliament, it would require a by-election to fill their positions because there wouldn’t be a party from which to select new members into the Parliament, so the constitutional laws would have to be a by-election to fill those positions.”
Herr says that FijiFirst has to cure the concern that the Registrar of Political Parties, Ana Mataiciwa, has highlighted, which is to amend its constitution.
He adds that if they do, then it will be an internal power struggle as to which faction within FijiFirst actually dominates.
FijiFirst has been given time until the 28th of this month to amend its constitution or face deregistration.
According to Section 20 of the Political Parties Act 2013, if a political party has been deregistered and has representatives elected to parliament, they shall continue to serve for the reminder of the term as independents or members of other political parties.
Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.
