Sawt Falasteen - Fiji opposition calls for halt to election count after 'anomaly'

Fiji, a tropical archipelago of more than 300 islands in the South Pacific, held a general election Wednesday -- a vote seen as a test of the country's fledgling democracy.

Incumbent Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a putsch 16 years ago, is challenged by former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, a two-time coup leader nicknamed "Rambo".

Voting day passed without major incident, but the count was marred by a late-night glitch that hid the tally from public view for four hours.

Rabuka had led in the first batches of results, lifting supporters' hopes of victory and raising the prospect of the first peaceful transition of power in two decades.

But when the system was restored just before dawn on Thursday, he was trailing Bainimarama by a significant margin.

Rabuka said the system had been compromised and ongoing counting should be scrapped.

In a joint statement, four opposition leaders said the incident "called into serious question the integrity of the entire system".

Rabuka said he was also considering writing to the military to ensure the election was fair -- but sought to assure the country that there "will not be a coup".

"We will pursue every avenue available to us to make sure that the people are not denied their right of electing their government," Rabuka told AFP earlier.

As he spoke, Rabuka thumbed through a copy of Fiji's constitution, which gives the military broad licence to safeguard Fiji's "well-being" and intervene if necessary.

- 'Nothing to hide' -

Vote organisers have called the incident an "anomaly", and pointed to provisional results that most observers agreed were improbable.

First returns showed a handful of little-known politicians gaining thousands of votes and polling well ahead of the major parties.

Election supervisor Mohammed Saneem dismissed the concerns of vote rigging as "conspiracy theories" and invited media to view the national counting centre.

"I have nothing to hide," he insisted, while ruling out an early stop to counting.

The clamour of objections became louder Thursday, with the leader of the Methodist Church -- the largest Christian denomination in what is a deeply religious country -- saying he had lost faith in the vote-counting system.

"It is our hope that due prudence will be provided to those who seek justice," Reverend Ili Vunisuwai said in a statement posted to Facebook.

Bainimarama, the media-shy ex-navy commodore who won elections in 2014 and 2018, has so far been silent on the controversy.

The 97 members of the Multinational Observer Group present in Fiji to oversee vote counting have also avoided weighing in.

- Nervous wait -

Fiji has endured four coups since 1987 and its institutions are again being tested.

Pacific analyst Tess Newton Cain said the error "may undermine confidence in the elections as a whole".

"It will quite likely undermine confidence in the office of elections, and Saneem as supervisor," added Newton Cain, from Griffith University's Pacific Hub.

Opinions were split among voters at the vast open-air market on Suva's waterfront.

Rabuka supporter Jone Nheamauto encouraged the challenge and said he did not "trust" the electoral system.

Pravin Lal, 56, said he was happy to continue with the same government.

Final results are not expected until Sunday and may be further delayed, but partial tallies showed the race is not yet over.

Bainimarama's Fiji First party held around 45 percent of the vote, with more than half of the country's 2,071 polling stations counted.

Rabuka's People's Alliance and its coalition partner -- the National Federation Party -- had just under 42 percent between them.

Another potential coalition party is polling just under the five percent threshold to take a seat in parliament.

Bainimarama's broad support among Indo-Fijians and the fracturing of the Indigenous Fijian, or iTaukei, vote, could once again deliver him victory.

The result of the election holds significance well beyond Fiji.

Rabuka has signalled that Fiji -- one of the most prosperous and influential nations in the South Pacific -- could loosen its ties with China if he is elected.

Fiji has grown closer to Beijing under Bainimarama, who used a "look north" policy to stabilise the economy after Australia and New Zealand hit the country with heavy trade sanctions in retaliation for his 2006 coup.

G.AbuHamad--SF-PST