Fiji media see political crisis deepening

2:00 pm

SUVA - Fiji's political crisis looked set to deepen today as local media speculated the President would dissolve Parliament, the Prime Minister resign after a day in office and a post-coup premier be re-appointed as caretaker.

The Fiji Times and Daily Post newspapers said President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who will be formally sworn in today, will dissolve Parliament and appoint a caretaker administration to steer Fiji to elections.

But the question all Fijians were asking was who would be the racially-torn nation's Prime Minister in the lead-up to the elections expected later in the year, possibly in August.

"Who will be PM?," asked Fiji's Daily Post.

The newspaper outlined a bizarre series of events which would see former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, who tendered his resignation last week after a court ruled his interim government illegal, again leading Fiji towards elections later in the year.

In such a scenario Qarase would become Fiji's fifth Prime Minister since a racially motivated coup in May 2000 toppled Fiji's first ethnic Indian premier, Mahendra Chaudhry.

In a surprise move, President Iloilo appointed his nephew Ratu Tevita Momoedonu Prime Minister yesterday, but both The Fiji Times and Daily Post said he would either resign today or be removed automatically when Parliament was dissolved.

His appointment was seen simply as a tool to allow Iloilo to follow the formal mechanism for dissolving parliament.

"Who will then lead the caretaker Government? If Ratu Iloilo is to be guided by the Great Council of Chiefs decision, then expect Mr Qarase to be re-appointed as caretaker Prime Minister," said the Daily Post. The chiefs are Fiji's traditional rulers.

The Fiji Times said Momoedonu would resign.

"Interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is expected to be appointed caretaker prime minister in the build-up to elections. He will return to office and expectations are that he will announce a much leaner team to assist him over the five-month period (to elections)," said The Fiji Times.

Momoedonu, labour minister in the post-coup Government and a minister in the multi-racial Chaudhry Government, has said he will recommend to Iloilo that elections be held in August.

Chaudhry, who said he had received his formal letter of dismissal from Iloilo yesterday, described Momoedonu's appointment as unconstitutional.

Iloilo is due to be sworn in formally as President today in a ceremony in Suva after being appointed by the powerful Great Council of Chiefs on Tuesday.

Iloilo and the chiefs have been trying to find a way out of Fiji's political crisis since the Court of Appeal ruled on March 1 that Qarase's post-coup Government was illegal.

Qarase was installed after nationalist rebels toppled the Chaudhry Government in the name of indigenous rights, sparking a wave of violence against Fiji's ethnic minority Indo-Fijians.

Fijians make up 44 per cent of the population of 800,000 and dominate the sugar and tourism driven economy.

- REUTERS

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