SYDNEY, Australia — Fiji’s military rulers on Saturday officially lifted a state of martial law that has been in place since 2009, setting the stage for public deliberations on a new constitution and a promised return to democratic elections within the next two years.

However, even as the lifting of martial law was being praised in the capital, Suva, the country’s leader, Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, also known as Frank Bainimarama, announced a raft of new regulations and restrictions that have prompted concerns that his government will pursue the sheen of legitimacy while continuing to silence its critics through force.

Fiji, a former British colony made up of roughly 330 islands in the central Pacific Ocean, has been under military rule since a 2006 coup led by Mr. Bainimarama. The emergency regulations that ended Saturday had greatly expanded police powers, placed government censors in newsrooms and curtailed the rights of nongovernmental organizations and religious organizations to hold meetings.

In a speech on Friday, Mr. Bainimarama announced that the emergency laws, which were enacted after a decision to abrogate the Constitution led the courts to declare his government illegitimate, would end. He said that the emergency powers had given his government time to stabilize the country, which has been troubled by political and ethnic tensions for decades.