Protest at Sydney campaign rally

Fiji’s military leader has been greeted by protesters in Sydney on his visit to Australian to campaign ahead of next month’s post-coup elections.

Hundreds of Fijian citizens attended a rally in Sydney’s south-west to coincide with the visit by FijiFirst Party leader Frank Bainimarama.

Supporters of Bainimarama and others approved by his government were allowed inside Canterbury Town Hall for a question-and-answer session.

However, other members of the Fijian community, including those in the Sydney-based Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement, were not allowed in and protested outside.

“What I wanted to do was to ask any questions but they didn’t allow that,” said Usaia Waqatairewa, national president of the Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement.

Waqatairewa said his group have been calling for Bainimarama to stand down and cede control to a caretaker government until polls can be held.

“What we are talking about is his controversial leadership of the last eight years,” Waqatairewa said.

A line of police stopped the protesters from entering the hall.

The protesters said the election process favoured Bainimarama’s Fiji First Party.

Latest opinion polls in Fiji show 60 per cent support for Bainimarama to be the legally elected prime minister.

The protestors also condemned Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop for allowing Bainimarama to visit.

A Fiji citizen who attended the rally said she wanted to know Bainimarama’s position on human rights, civil democracy and freedom of the press.

“I am somebody who is genuinely curious in what he has to say,” she said.

“Bainimarama’s so called public meeting is a farce. Told by security personnel that it’s by invite only. Signs of a gutless dictator,” an angry attendee wrote on Facebook.

Videos shot on mobile phones and posted on social media on Saturday afternoon show throngs of protesters chanting and singing outside the forum, bearing signs calling for a “Free Fiji”.

More than 55,000 Fiji-born people live in Australia, according to the last census held in 2011, with most living in New South Wales state of which Sydney is the capital. Thousands are thought to be eligible to vote in the Fiji election.