- Elections and the chain of democratic choice
- The 2019 Elections: Electoral Quality, Political Inequality and the Flames of Frustration in Honiara
- Independent MPs, Political Party Legislation and Electoral Politics in Solomon Islands
- 2018 Fiji Election Results: Patterns of Voting by Provinces, Rural-Urban Localities, and by Candidates
- Religion and the New Media: Discourses and Debates in the 2018 Fiji General Election Campaign
- Elections and the chain of democratic choice
- The 2019 Elections: Electoral Quality, Political Inequality and the Flames of Frustration in Honiara
- Independent MPs, Political Party Legislation and Electoral Politics in Solomon Islands
- 2018 Fiji Election Results: Patterns of Voting by Provinces, Rural-Urban Localities, and by Candidates
- Religion and the New Media: Discourses and Debates in the 2018 Fiji General Election Campaign
Religion and the New Media: Discourses and Debates in the 2018 Fiji General Election Campaign
Authors: Jacqueline Ryle (Email: jacqueline.ryle@usp.ac.fj) and Jope Tarai
Abstract
This article explores discourses and debates on secularism, religion, and politics in social media in connection with the 2018 Fiji general election campaign, and in interviews with leading figures in churches and religious organisations. It discusses how people responded to these issues. It shows that there is still a pervasive lack of clarity in the Fijian population as to what the terms Christian state, secular state, secularism, and secularisation mean, how people understand, discuss, and debate them, and how this lack of clarity was used politically during the campaign.
Keywords: Fiji Elections; New Media; Christian State; Secular State; Secularism