ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
Fiji's Labour Party has called for fresh elections to replace the coup-installed military government within a year and a half.
The interim government said elections would be held in 2014, but Labour leader Mahendra Chaudhry said the President should initiate a dialogue to hasten the country's return to democracy.
He said the present regime was presiding over a worsening economy, rising poverty and there was no discussion about future directions.
Chaudhry, a former Fiji Prime Minister and the first Indo-Fijian to achieve that milestone, was ousted by military coup in 2000 and subsequently replaced by former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. Qarase himself was ousted, by military commander Frank Bainimarama, in 2006.
He was named Finance Director under the Bainimarama Regime in 2007 but resigned in 2008.
Chaudhry told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat he was initially in favour of the 2006 coup, but his stance has changed.
“My participation in the regime was on the basis of getting the country back to democracy as soon as possible and ... elections were then promised for April 2009, but that didn't happen," he said.
Meanwhile, speculation is rife in Tonga that King George Tupou V will make former Fiji army lieutenant colonel, Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara, a noble.
Ratu Tevita fled to Tonga earlier this month after being charged with sedition in Fiji. He was picked up by a Tonga navy vessel and taken to Nuku’alofa, where he’s been under the protection of the royal family, to whom he’s related.
The King was out of the country during Ratu Tevita’s purported rescue but returned on last week.
Radio New Zealand reported that the people were waiting for the King to make an announcement and there’s some expectation he’ll use his prerogative to bestow a title on Ratu Tevita to provide him with additional protection.
The strong link is there so if the King wishes to offer protection for Colonel Mara it will a long shot for Commodore Bainimarama to have him extradited from Tonga.
Fiji's Labour Party has called for fresh elections to replace the coup-installed military government within a year and a half. The interim government said elections would be held in 2014, but Labour leader Mahendra Chaudhry said the President should initiate a dialogue to hasten the country's...
Fiji's Labour Party has called for fresh elections to replace the coup-installed military government within a year and a half.
The interim government said elections would be held in 2014, but Labour leader Mahendra Chaudhry said the President should initiate a dialogue to hasten the country's return to democracy.
He said the present regime was presiding over a worsening economy, rising poverty and there was no discussion about future directions.
Chaudhry, a former Fiji Prime Minister and the first Indo-Fijian to achieve that milestone, was ousted by military coup in 2000 and subsequently replaced by former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. Qarase himself was ousted, by military commander Frank Bainimarama, in 2006.
He was named Finance Director under the Bainimarama Regime in 2007 but resigned in 2008.
Chaudhry told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat he was initially in favour of the 2006 coup, but his stance has changed.
“My participation in the regime was on the basis of getting the country back to democracy as soon as possible and ... elections were then promised for April 2009, but that didn't happen," he said.
Meanwhile, speculation is rife in Tonga that King George Tupou V will make former Fiji army lieutenant colonel, Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara, a noble.
Ratu Tevita fled to Tonga earlier this month after being charged with sedition in Fiji. He was picked up by a Tonga navy vessel and taken to Nuku’alofa, where he’s been under the protection of the royal family, to whom he’s related.
The King was out of the country during Ratu Tevita’s purported rescue but returned on last week.
Radio New Zealand reported that the people were waiting for the King to make an announcement and there’s some expectation he’ll use his prerogative to bestow a title on Ratu Tevita to provide him with additional protection.
The strong link is there so if the King wishes to offer protection for Colonel Mara it will a long shot for Commodore Bainimarama to have him extradited from Tonga.
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