New Fiji PM promises democracy

SUVA, Fiji (AP) – Fiji’s president appointed a new caretaker prime minister Friday who immediately pledged to hold elections to restore the Pacific nation to constitutional rule, which was suspended during a May coup.

Speaking after his swearing-in by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, Laisenia Qarase said he planned to hold elections in August.

Qarase then announced he would run for a seat in Parliament. Qarase was a career civil servant before the army installed him as interim prime minister after the coup, which was led by indigenous Fijians who said ethnic Indians were wielding too much power.

The Fiji Court of Appeal ruled Qarase’s interim government unlawful early this month, triggering complex political maneuvering by the country’s influential tribal chiefs to restore it to power.

Qarase, who resigned his post as interim premier on Wednesday, said he would name his Cabinet later Friday and that it would be similar to his previous administration. That lineup included just one Indian, in a junior ministerial post.

Ethnic Indians make up 44 percent of Fiji’s 840,000 residents.

The May coup, led by failed businessman George Speight, ousted Fiji’s first ethnic Indian-led government.

Under the constitution, the prime minister must confirm the president appointed by the country’s influential tribal chiefs. In a legal maneuver, Momoedonu was named prime minister Wednesday to do so. He then resigned Thursday.

Mahendra Chaudhry, the Indian prime minister who was toppled in last spring’s coup, on Friday condemned “every action” of President Iloilo since the court ruling as “illegal, unconstitutional and unlawful.”

He described the 19-hour prime ministership of Momoedonu as “not only unlawful but farcical and fraudulent. It made a mockery of the constitution itself.”

Iloilo’s appointment of Qarase was seen by legal experts as outside the constitution.

Iloilo delivered a strong Fijian nationalist message in a speech after his swearing-in, warning his indigenous Fijian countrymen they should “be concentrating now as never before on attaining political unity.”

Foreign observers in Suva said the international community was probably prepared to accept the changes because of the president and prime minister’s commitment to fresh elections this year to restore democracy.

Fiji’s main trading partners have warned the country faced crippling economic sanctions if it veered away from a swift and lawful return to democracy.