RESIDENTS of Taveuni have complained about the short time they were given to make submissions to the Constitution Commission.
Naqara resident David Reynolds said it was frustrating that they were only given four hours to air their views on the island after their long anticipation.
"However, we are happy in a way that submissions can now be submitted to the commission via e-mail or through post-delivery but it is still unfair thinking about the other 32,000 people on the island who might not have the chance to submit their views due to the isolation of settlements," said Mr Reynolds.
Fellow resident James Sami said the time allocation was too little "and to think that the 32,000 populace of the island which has a voting population of 8000 was represented by 30 submissions is unfair".
"Viti Levu and the rest of the Western area were given more than a week for their submissions. How about us the people in the north? Don't our submissions count?" Mr Sami said.
However, speaking at the end of submissions at the Somosomo Provincial Council Meeting centre yesterday Professor Yash Ghai said the issues raised around the country were generally the same, "therefore the time for submissions is not a problem unless we have new issues coming up".
"What we have generally found out is that members of the public are not satisfied with the services that the government provides them," he said.
"If we had the time we would have stayed back but time is against the commission and submissions will close by the 15th of this month before we have to review them then draft a sample draft Constitution that will be sent back to the public for review."