Fiji's military government ruled out any election this year and said on Friday it would extend emergency laws, defying an international deadline for the country's suspension from the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum, Reuters reported. "We made it quite clear that it is not going to happen. There will be no election until September 2014," Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told Sky News Australia in an interview. "That's the deadline... "I think there will be a need to continue that (emergency regulation). We want this calm to continue for a while," said Bainimarama, who also commands the country's military. Fiji was plunged into fresh political crisis this month after the president reappointed Bainimarama as interim prime minister, less than two days after a court ruled his 2006 coup and subsequent government was illegal. Bainimarama, who has ruled out elections until 2014 after earlier promising a poll this year, immediately imposed emergency restrictions, including sending troops and police into media and government offices to gag opposition to his reform plans. But the country has been under pressure to back down and announce democratic elections as a May 1 deadline passed for the country's suspension from the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum. Bainimarama said he wanted urgent talks with the leaders of regional heavyweights Australian and New Zealand to resolve the standoff over democratic reforms and avert a threat of tougher international sanctions.
