POLITICAL parties should not be involved in the election process or selection of a government.
Lautoka resident Verona Lucas told the Constitution Commission there were other electoral processes that could be followed to elect people for parliament.
"For the constitution to work and Fiji to experience true unity, the election process cannot involve political parties which are divisive and destructive," she said.
"Having witnessed earlier elections since Independence and watching the disunity and the destruction brought to the people of Fiji by the election process, taking nearly full four years to recover and then plunged into the process again, this was very distressing," said Ms Lucas.
She said there are other processes that could be operated.
"Fiji has 182 districts, around 2000 villages and settlements as well as cities and towns and 16 provinces. An election process that allows people to elect people they know are reliable, trustworthy, honest and well educated and were not pre-selected by others such as a political party with its own agenda is required," Ms Lucas said.
Offering her solution to this problem, Ms Lucas said qualified people could be elected from the community level and then onto the national level following a series of district, provincial and national conferences.
"After election of local people representing them, those who have been elected attend a district conference to consult with other delegates to a provincial conference where there again is a consultation on the election of people to parliament.
"This process costs no more than the support of district and national conferences and does away with the highly expensive process involved in registering parties and canvassing support."
She said this process would get rid of empty promises from political party candidates.
"As I have been exposed to the fact that there are communities who, election process after election process, were promised more and then never got it."