Issue No: 597; 17 March 2001

The elected Prime Minister of Fiji, Mahendra Chaudhry has called all the decisions made by the President illegal, unconstitutional and unlawful.

In a press statement released yesterday, Chaudhry stated:
"It is clear that Ratu Josefa and his advisers never had any intention of acting within the bounds of the constitution or the rule of law. Their undertaking to do so was a mere stage show to mislead the people of Fiji and the international community."

Chaudhry stated that the President did not heed his advice to stay within the provisions of the Constitution. He stated:
"Had the acting President heeded my advice, he would have stayed within the bounds of the Constitution. If members of the House did not want me as prime minister, as claimed by him, they would have had the opportunity to bring a no confidence motion on the subject and remove me, thus paving the way for Ratu Josefa to appoint a new prime minister who had the support of the House to lead a caretaker government until the general elections."

"It is not proper for Ratu Josefa to assume that he could not appoint a caretaker prime minister from the elected members of the House of Representatives because of the split among political parties."

"Clearly, the answer lay in his awaiting developments in the reconvened House of Representatives in relation to the prime minister issue. Ratu Josefa is quite wrong in pre-empting the matter on bad advice."

"Fiji had the option of dealing with its political crisis within the law. But those in authority chose to take the unlawful path. They chose not to listen to the good counsel of a majority of our people, our Courts and the international community."

"Sadly, the innocent people - the poor and the disadvantaged of all races in the community will have to pay the price for the decision of those in authority not to act responsibly."