SUVA - The deputy of ousted Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry said yesterday that the former leader was totally unsuitable for governing the country and should leave politics for the sake of national unity.
Tupeni Baba said a meeting of members of Chaudhry's Labour Party had called on Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister, to step down in favour of a government of national unity led by an indigenous Fijian.
"Mahendra Chaudhry has been found by the people of this country to be totally unsuitable for governing this country," Baba said. "We have called for him to step down not only from our party but everywhere," Baba told Australian radio in Suva.
Chaudhry's People's Coalition Government is in limbo after being overthrown by a racially inspired coup last year and after a court ruling last week which declared Fiji's post-coup, military-backed interim Government illegal.
The move against Chaudhry came as interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase called his cabinet together to decide how to respond to the court ruling.
