SUVA – Fiji’s parliamentary opposition walked out of parliament on Thursday, declaring the legislature a “slaughterhouse of democracy” and a “farce”.

The Sodelpa MPs were protesting against changes the government wanted to make to the parliament’s rules, known as the standing orders.

The MPs called for the motion to be thrown out, saying rule changes could only be made by the Standing Orders Committee, which had reached an impasse on the issue.

Opposition leader Ro Teimumu Kepa said the amendments were not in line with democratic principles.

“This a very sad day for parliament and parliamentary democracy when parliament has completely ignored procedures,” the opposition’s chief whip, Ratu Isoa Tikoca, said.

He said the most serious change would result in the opposition losing its chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee – another key parliamentary committee, which scrutinises accounts.

Another amendment requiring 40 per cent of the parliament to approve petitions would nullify the voices of ordinary citizens wanting to raise issues, he said,

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the constitution allowed parliament to amend parliamentary rules.

He said the changes were just a “fixing up” of the procedures and some of the changes were already happening.

“It is not trying to throttle democracy,” he said.

In a veiled criticism of Biman Prasad, who has been the chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Sayed-Khaiyum hit out at what he called arbitrary decisions and “commentary to the media on a running basis”.

“We are trying to bring some sanity to the way the committee is conducted,” he said.

After the walk-out, Ratu Isoa said the changes were the final straw in a week that also saw Dr Prasad and his two fellow National Federation Party (NFP) MPs suspended from parliament.

Fiji’s parliament resumes on Tuesday with three empty seats after the suspension of the opposition National Federation Party MPs last week.

Opposition MPs had been wearing black ribbons as a sign of the death of the country’s democracy, Isoa said.

“We have been wearing black ribbons since Tuesday and that is the culmination of our substantively saying that these people have brought this country to total dictatorship again.

“There is no way we are addressing anything democratically. That is the position why we walked out.”

It totals the fourth time in 15 months that the opposition has staged a walk out.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said the continuous walkout does not do Opposition any good because they are confused about what their job supposed to be in Parliament.

The NFP and its three MPs were controversially suspended last week for 30 days over an auditing issue.

The fine print of the suspension is being argued by lawyers on both sides.

NFP’s lawyers Munro Leys has written to the Registrar of Political Parties, Mohammed Saneem, saying that the Fiji Institute of Accountants does not bestow the title of ‘auditor’ to its members.

Saneem suspended the NFP because he said they breached the Political Parties Decree by not getting their accounts audited by “an auditor certified by the Fiji Institute of Accountants”.

Lawyer Richard Naidu said in his letter: “We assume you have now worked out that there is no such thing as an ‘auditor certified by the Fiji Institute of Accountants’. The institute does not certify ‘auditors’. It certifies members.”

Naidu ays the Decree’s terminology is therefore “meaningless”.

Government critics are pointing out that it took 22 months for the registrar of political parties to decide that the NFP had an account auditing issue.

- RNZI/PNC