Unity Fiji Leader, Savenaca Narube says the announcement by the new One Nation party that it has formally received the endorsement of Voreqe Bainimarama will seriously hurt its chances in the next general elections.
However General Secretary of One Nation, Ravindran Kumaran says the success or otherwise of the party in the upcoming elections, which by law has to be held by February 2027, will be decided by the Fijian voters in an electoral process which must be impartial, transparent, have integrity and give all Fijian voters in Fiji and overseas the equal opportunity to participate in a credible democratic process.
While reacting to the earlier statement on the endorsement of One Nation by Bainimarama, Narube says the President of the new party, Tupou Draunidalo’s belief that Bainimarama would bring trust and confidence to all Fijians is seriously misplaced.
Narube says the people know that coup leaders like Bainimarama have only brought distrust, hurt, and shame to the country and its people.
He stresses that Bainimarama was responsible for the dark days of torture, fear, intimidation, and dictatorship in Fiji.
Narube says he wishes to remind the people that they have the power to stop coups when they stop honouring coup leaders and speak out against coups.
He says we should remove the immunity clause in the imposed 2013 Constitution and allow justice to take its course.
Narube says like George Speight, the other coup leaders should be brave enough to account for their actions.
He says One Nation is dragging us back to the old political style of voting for past popularity which has cost us dearly.
He adds we must now move forward to voting leaders that have the right credentials to take Fiji forward to a better place for our future generation.
Narube says Fiji must never go back to the dark days of our history.
He says we owe our children and grandchildren and those that will come after them a better country where we celebrate achievements not coups, have one law for everyone not selective justice, transform our livelihoods not wallow in poverty, look after the people not self serving, and clean up the governance not condone corruption.
The Unity Fiji Leader says it is interesting that the two political factions from the remnants of FijiFirst have taken two different pathways - one tries to return to the strategies of FijiFirst while the other tries to distance itself as far as possible from FijiFirst.
Narube says since the downward slide of FijiFirst in the 2018 elections and especially in the last three years, the people have moved on.
He says they want a leadership that is fresh, credible and, above all, can be truly trusted.
One Nation's General Secretary, Ravindran Kumaran says Savenaca Narube is entitled to his opinion, disjointed as it maybe.
Kumaran says as a reminder to Narube, in all the elections held under the 2013 Constitution, which for the first time in our post independent history ensures that the vote of every voter is of equal value, Bainimarama received by far the highest number of votes in all the three elections.
He says as a result he was elected Prime Minister twice and in the third election the party he led, single handedly won the most number of seats.
Kumaran adds that the current Prime Minister had to muster three parties and won on the floor of Parliament by one vote.
