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Issue No: 952; 18 July 2001
The National Federation Party has again become leaderless. The newly appointed leader Dr. Biman Prasad resigned from the leadership only 30 hours after being appointed the leader. Prasad cited personal, family and work reasons for his resignation. He stated that these pressures emerged only after he was appointed the leader. On TV, he said he was resigning because of his "personal interest". But the media has questioned Prasad's sincerity in stating these reasons, claiming that Prasad would have known of the personal. Family and work reasons before he took up the leadership. The media has speculated of a major split in the party. It is believed that Prasad got the leadership after a bitter leadership struggle within the Party. Sources indicate that Prasad's backers threatened the caucus of the NFP of withdrawing his support and candidature if he did not get the leadership position. But Prasad denied that there was a leadership struggle, saying that the leadership issue was decided in one minute only. Prasad, however, acknowledged to today's Fiji Sun that the NFP "is a party of many leaders". Inside sources claim that the university academic is an armchair politician and did not realise the enormity of the responsibility when he made a bid for leadership. It is also believed that some key NFP supporters had decided to withdraw support from Prasad after it was announced to a shocked audience of the Party that Prasad was the new leader. The Party, which has been called rudderless
by the media, will now be appointing a new leader. The new leader will be the
5th leader of the party in 2 years. The Fiji Times has called Prasad's
resignation as a disservice to the party, and has now written off the NFP as a
political force in the country. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
