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Issue No: 547; 4 March 2001
Mahendra Chaudhry is still Fiji's Prime Minister, say legal experts. In a legal opinion on the role of the Great Council of Chiefs, counsel for Chandrika Prasad, Geoffrey Robertson and Professor George Williams, stated that the GCC has to consult Prime Minister Chaudhry on any appointment of the new President. The opinion states that under the 1997 Constitution, the GCC is required to consult the Prime Minister on the appointment of the President and the Vice-President. It then states: "The appropriate person with whom the council should consult, at least until Parliament is recalled, is Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. As the Fiji Court of Appeal noted on p 3, Counsel agreed that the President did not dismiss the Prime Minister or his Government". The opinion has been sent to the President's office by the People's Coalition Government. Robertson and Williams successfully defended Chandrika Prasad in the landmark Fiji Court of Appeal case for which the regime had engaged London's Matrix Chambers at a total cost of about $0.25m. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
