One More Step Before Coalition Get’s All Clear to Govern
Today’s vote for Prime Minister designate Sitiveni Rabuka in Parliament holds the final key that clears the way for the new coalition Government to govern us for the next four years.
If he gets a clear majority then we can expect to hear the ministerial lineup of The People’s Alliance-National Federation Party-SODELPA coalition Government soon.
The vote will be by secret ballot and the focus will be on the three SODELPA MPs Viliame Gavoka, Aseri Radrodro and Ifereimi Vasu who hold the balance of power. It only needs two of them supporting Mr Rabuka for him to win.
But if the coalition fails to secure the two votes it could lead to a hung Parliament, a caretaker Government and fresh election.
It is understood that the trio have been directed by the party to vote for Mr Rabuka. SODELPA’s coalition negotiation leader Anare Jale declined to respond when he was asked to outline the details of the directive. The party stands on shaky ground on this issue.
It set a precedent when the parliamentary caucus ignored a directive from the party to elect party leader Viliame Gavoka as Opposition leader in the last Parliament.
The position was vacant when Sitiveni Rabuka resigned from SODELPA and set up The PA after he lost the party leader contest to Mr Gavoka.
The then party president, Ratu Epenisa Cakobau, wrote to the caucus and directed the MPs to elect Mr Gavoka as a logical choice because was party leader. But the caucus defied Ratu Epenisa’s directive and elected Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu.
Most of the rebels are now in Mr Rabuka’s The PA.
They were members of SODELPA’s conservative right wing faction. The party did not discipline them for defying its directive.
The trio in question could all abstain or vote for another candidate and the party would not be able to anything based on the Rau Naiqama case.
From then until Parliament was prorogued, the caucus operated independently from the party. Ratu Epenisa tried to address the issue but his attempts fizzled out.
Mr Radrodro, however, had said earlier this week that he was a party man and would do as the party directed.
If yesterday’s events when SODELPA’s Management Board voted 13-12 to go with The PA-NFP coalition followed by the leaders’ statements were anything to go by, today’s proceedings would just be a formality.
FijiFirst is likely to nominate Voreqe Bainimarama as it fights all the way using the available processes but its options are fast running out.
If the coalition gets the all-clear today, then we can expect it to go to work immediately. It will hit the ground running.
It will not be plain sailing, though because of legal requirements.
It has a list of issues it wants to take care of in the first 100 days.
They include the repeal of the decrees brought over to the 2013 Constitution from military administration, the phasing out of the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) and integration into the Police structure, and the scrapping of the student loan and scholarship scheme and replaced by free tuition.