Fiji's New PM Sworn in, Wants Fresh ElectionsFiji's new Prime Minister Ratu Tevita Momoedonu was sworn in Wednesday and said he would advise President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to dissolve parliament and hold fresh elections.Radio Fiji reported that Momoedonu was sworn in at a ceremony near Lautoka, a west coast sugar town. Momoeduonu was the minister for labor and industrial relations in the country's interim government installed after Fiji's last year's coup and headed by acting Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. He is also a member of Fiji's Labor Party, the fijilive.com website said. In an interview with Radio Fiji, Momoedonu said he would advise President Ratu Josefa Iloilo on Thursday to dissolve parliament and hold fresh elections He proposed the fresh elections to be held "sometimes in August. " "Now that I've been appointed the prime minister, one of the task that I would like to see is to send this country back to normal," he said. Mahendra Chaudhry was on Wednesday sacked as Fiji's prime minister hours before Momoedonu was appointed the job, fijilive. com website reported. Fiji's President Ratu Josefa Iloilo told Chaudhry in a letter that he had been dismissed because by advising Iloilo to dissolve parliament last week, he had accepted that he no longer had the mandate of parliament. But Chaudhry urged Iloilo to reconsider his decision, the website said. Chaudhry became Fiji's first Indian prime minister in the May 1999 elections and was ousted in a coup a year later Fiji's influential Great Council of Chiefs Tuesday reconfirmed Iloilo as the country's president and re-endorsed Ratu Jope Seniloli as vice president, On March 1, the Court of Appeal of Fiji ruled that the present government is illegitimate and a new president will have to be elected within the next two weeks. The court said the country's parliament was not dissolved but prorogued following the coup by George Speight and his supporters in May last year. It also ruled that the 1997 constitution remains the supreme law of the country. |
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