24 hours a long time in Fijian politics

SUVA - Laisenia Qarase, leader of a post-coup Fiji Government that a court ruled was illegal, has been recalled as caretaker Prime Minister to lead the racially split nation to elections later this year.

Qarase's Government stepped down on Wednesday when President Ratu Josefa Iloilo unexpectedly named his nephew, Ratu Tevita Momoedonu, a labour minister in the post-coup Government, as Prime Minister.

However, the appointment was seen merely as a tool to allow Iloilo to follow the formal mechanism required to recall and then dissolve Parliament, finally leading to elections.

Yesterday, Momoedonu resigned after only one day in office as the racially split nation muddles its way towards a new post-coup administration and fresh elections.

"I can confirm that Ratu Tevita Momoedonu has resigned to allow the president to appoint a caretaker prime minister and cabinet," presidential spokesman Colonel Jeremaie Waqanisau told reporters.

Iloilo then reinstated Qarase, saying in a national address: "Laisenia Qarase has proved during these trying times that he has the confidence of the people to take the country through."

A court ruled on March 1 that Qarase's military-backed Government was illegal, deepening the political crisis that began when nationalist rebels toppled the nation's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, in May last year.

Fiji's military quelled the rebellion but installed Qarase's Government rather than reinstating the elected Administration.

Iloilo said elections would likely be held in August.

The President and the powerful Great Council of Chiefs, a gathering of indigenous rulers, have been trying to find a way out of Fiji's political crisis since the Court of Appeal ruling that the interim government of Qarase was illegal.

Qarase was installed after failed businessman George Speight, who proclaimed himself a champion of indigenous Fijians battling the economic supremacy of the Indian minority, took Chaudhry, hostage.

Since the court ruling, Iloilo has stressed the need to avoid the widespread violence against ethnic Indians who make up 44 percent of the population of 800,000 and dominate the sugar and tourism driven economy.

Chaudhry's People's Coalition, which won broad support in the Court of Appeal ruling described Momoedonu's appointment as unconstitutional.

"Members of the Qarase regime are desperately trying to get reappointed by the President," it said in a statement.

Herald Online feature: the Fiji coup

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