Neither of the two candidates nominated for President qualified for the position – Chaudhry

Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry believes neither of the two candidates nominated for the President of Fiji qualified for the position however SODELPA Leader Viliame Gavoka says they believe the opposition acted within the law.

Chaudhry says the Office of the President is supposed to be apolitical, divorced from any political party affiliation.

He says Section 83(1) (c) of the 2013 constitution disqualifies anyone who is a member, or holder of any office in any political party from being a candidate for the Office of the President.

According to Section 83 (1) of the 2013 constitution, a person shall not be qualified to be nominated for the Office of the President unless he or she has had a distinguished career in any aspect of national or international life, whether in the public or private sector, holds only a Fiji citizenship, is not a member of, or holds any office in any political party, is not a candidate for election to any other office in State and has not at any time during the 6 years immediately before being nominated, been convicted of any offence under any law.

Section 83 (2) also states a person holding a public office is not required to resign from that office before accepting nomination for President, but the appointment of the person as the President has the effect of terminating his or her service in that office.

The Labour Leader says the Turaga na Tui Macuata, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere is known to be the President of the FijiFirst Party as per the information last published by the Registrar of Political Parties in December 2020.

Chaudhry has questioned when Ratu Wiliame vacated that office and they have not seen any notice of his resignation from the post or as a member of FijiFirst. He adds if the President of a ruling political party resigns, it should be a matter of public information.

Chaudhry adds their inquiries of some FijiFirst MPs disclosed that even they were unaware of Ratu Wiliame having vacated the party president’s post.

He also revealed one of the FijiFirst MPs has stated that FijiFirst is run like a private company with two directors making all the decisions.

Chaudhry says he is also surprised that the opposition made the same mistake as Ro Teimumu Kepa is a sitting member of parliament of SODELPA and her nomination should not have been entertained on the floor of the House.

When contacted, SODELPA Leader, Viliame Gavoka says they were clear in terms of nominating Ro Teimumu.

He says the precedence was set by the outgoing President, Jioji Konrote who was also a parliamentarian at the time when he was nominated by his party to stand for the President’s position.

We have also contacted Attorney General and FijiFirst General Secretary, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum for a response. He is yet to respond.