ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
Fiji’s Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama yesterday officially resigned as head of the Fiji Military Focres ahead of the general elections he is widely expected to win.
Bainimarama, who took power in a bloodless 2006 coup, announced earlier this year that he would resign as military chief in order to stand for the Prime Ministership in elections scheduled for September.
The new head of the Fijian Army is Land Force Commander Brigadier Mosese Tikoitoga,
Ceremonies were being held in the Fijian capital Suva to commemorate the end of Bainimarama’s nearly four-decade military career and the transfer of command to Brigadier Tikoitoga.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop praised the announcement. Bishop visited Fiji last month and has made a thawing of icy relations between the two neighbours a priority.
New Zealand and Australia are Fiji's biggest aid donors.
"This is the latest in a series of positive developments in Fiji's election preparations, and its return to parliamentary democracy," Bishop said in a statement.
Fiji has suffered four coups and a bloody military mutiny since 1987, mainly as a result of tension between the majority indigenous Fijian population and an economically powerful, ethnic Indian minority.
New Zealand and Australia imposed tough sanctions on the regime in the wake of the 2006 coup, which contributed to a sharp deterioration of relations.
Fiji's military government has been criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and activist groups for widespread media censorship and allegations of human rights abuses, including torture.
Bainimarama, who imposed emergency laws in 2009 prohibiting protests and censoring the media, promised in 2012 to begin talks on a constitution to replace one annulled in 2009.
However, police seized and destroyed hundreds of copies of the draft constitution, which had angered senior military officers by curbing the military's interference in politics, sparking criticism from Australia and New Zealand.
Fiji’s Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama yesterday officially resigned as head of the Fiji Military Focres ahead of the general elections he is widely expected to win. Bainimarama, who took power in a bloodless 2006 coup, announced earlier this year that he would resign as military chief...
Fiji’s Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama yesterday officially resigned as head of the Fiji Military Focres ahead of the general elections he is widely expected to win.
Bainimarama, who took power in a bloodless 2006 coup, announced earlier this year that he would resign as military chief in order to stand for the Prime Ministership in elections scheduled for September.
The new head of the Fijian Army is Land Force Commander Brigadier Mosese Tikoitoga,
Ceremonies were being held in the Fijian capital Suva to commemorate the end of Bainimarama’s nearly four-decade military career and the transfer of command to Brigadier Tikoitoga.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop praised the announcement. Bishop visited Fiji last month and has made a thawing of icy relations between the two neighbours a priority.
New Zealand and Australia are Fiji's biggest aid donors.
"This is the latest in a series of positive developments in Fiji's election preparations, and its return to parliamentary democracy," Bishop said in a statement.
Fiji has suffered four coups and a bloody military mutiny since 1987, mainly as a result of tension between the majority indigenous Fijian population and an economically powerful, ethnic Indian minority.
New Zealand and Australia imposed tough sanctions on the regime in the wake of the 2006 coup, which contributed to a sharp deterioration of relations.
Fiji's military government has been criticised by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and activist groups for widespread media censorship and allegations of human rights abuses, including torture.
Bainimarama, who imposed emergency laws in 2009 prohibiting protests and censoring the media, promised in 2012 to begin talks on a constitution to replace one annulled in 2009.
However, police seized and destroyed hundreds of copies of the draft constitution, which had angered senior military officers by curbing the military's interference in politics, sparking criticism from Australia and New Zealand.
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