SUVA, Fiji ----- Former Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has advised the interim Government not to worry about the Commonwealth-issued September deadline for elections.

Speaking to Fijilive, Mr Rabuka said he believed the general elections should not be rushed into.

“In my opinion, the best time to have elections would be 2011, as that would be five years after the interim Government came into power. And normally, we give a time frame of five years for the new government and budget cycle to work,” Mr Rabuka said.

He said the interim Government should ignore the pressure from the Commonwealth.

“We should anticipate being suspended from the Commonwealth as we have already missed their deadline,” Mr Rabuka said.

He stressed that the worst step the Commonwealth could take was to suspend Fiji.

“Right now, the nation needs to concentrate on race relations and political differences,” Mr Rabuka said.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) at its meeting in London early this month issued a deadline that Fiji return to parliamentary democracy by September this year, or be subjected to suspension from the Commonwealth.