SUVA, Fiji (9 Sep 2001) -- Laisenia Qarase is the new Prime Minister of Fiji but the exact make-up of the government will not be known for at least 24 hours. Qarase was sworn in at 10 a.m. Monday (2200 GMT Sunday) by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo at Government House for a five-year term. The new Prime Minister told media he had the numbers to form government and his swearing in was the right procedure under the Fijian constitution. Qarase's Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) party won 31 seats in Fiji's 71-seat parliament in elections held last week. Former leader Mahendra Chaudhry's Fiji Labour Party won 27 seats and the ultra-nationalist Conservative Alliance, which counts jailed coup plotter George Speight as a parliamentary member, gained six seats. Minor parties and independents make up the balance. Qarase said Monday he had spoken to all the minor parties, including the Conservative Alliance, and the ultimate make-up of the Government would be revealed in the next 24 hours. It is not known whether the deal-making will include an amnesty for Speight, who attempted to overthrow the Chaudhry government in May last year, as outlined in the Conservative Alliance manifesto. However, Qarase did say he would go forward with his party's manifesto, which includes Speight having to undergo the due process of the law. Speight is currently imprisoned and undergoing a trial for treason for his actions, which included holding Chaudhry and members of his government hostage for 56 days. First sitting next month Iloilo swore in Qarase, an indigenous Fijian, in a brief ceremony before dignitaries and officials at Government House, a sprawling colonial mansion overlooking Suva lagoon. "May God be with you," Iloilo told the new prime minister. The party then walked outside for a Methodist church service. | | Laisenia Qarase Qarase wrote to the president Sunday saying he had the support of a majority of legislators to form a new governing coalition, presidential secretary Jeremaia Waqanisau said. Qarase's indigenous Fijian-dominated Cabinet is expected to be sworn in Wednesday and the first sitting of parliament to take place in the first week of October. Return to indigenous power Qarase's appointment effectively gives the hardline nationalist coup plotters what they were demanding -- a return of political power to indigenous Fijians. The coup ousted Chaudhry, the first prime minister from Fiji's 44-percent ethnic Indian minority. Many indigenous Fijians, who make up 51 percent of the country's 820,000 people, believe Indians, first brought to the country in the 19th century to work in sugar cane fields, wield too much political and economic clout. Fiji has been disrupted by three armed coups since 1987, and many see Qarase as the country's last chance for stability. Thousands of skilled ethnic Indians have fled to other countries in the wake of the coups and renewed tensions between the two main racial groups. Meanwhile, Chaudhry has claimed part of the voting process was rigged and on Sunday said he planned to go to the high court alleging vote fraud in at least six seats. Chaudhry is believed to have teamed with a minor party to file an injunction in Suva Monday over claims of vote-rigging in predominantly Labour stronghold electorates. |
