Fiji has new government after three parties form coalition

The Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), a power-broker holding three seats in the hung parliament, announced on Tuesday it had decided to form a coalition with Sitiveni Rabuka's People's Alliance and the National Federation Party. The decision came after two days of deliberations and rival presentations by former Prime Minister Bainimarama and the People's Alliance party, after a national election last week resulted in a deadlock.

Fiji will have a new leader for the first time in 16 years after a national election resulted in three parties joining up to form a government in the Pacific island nation, dislodging Frank Bainimarama's Fiji First party. The Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), a power-broker holding three seats in the hung parliament, announced on Tuesday it had decided to form a coalition with Sitiveni Rabuka's People's Alliance and the National Federation Party.

The decision came after two days of deliberations and rival presentations by former Prime Minister Bainimarama and the People's Alliance party, after a national election last week resulted in a deadlock. At a livestreamed news conference, Rabuka thanked the people of Fiji.

"They have voted for change and we have given them that," he said. National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad told reporters: "Today the leaders of the People's Alliance party, the National Federation Party and the Social Democratic Liberal Party agreed to form a new government."

He said Rabuka would become the new prime minister of Fiji under the deal, and a "strong and united coalition government" was a Christmas present to the people of Fiji. Television broadcaster FBC said the new coalition government would hold 29 seats in parliament, and Fiji First would hold 26 seats.

A Pacific trade and transport hub with a population of 900,000, including a sizeable Indian ethnic group, Fiji had a history of military coups until the constitution was changed in 2013 to remove a race-based electoral system. Bainimarama, who came to power in a 2006 coup, won democratic elections in 2014 and 2018 by appealing to the Indian community as well as indigenous Fijians, but there had been growing criticism of punitive media laws and pressure on the judiciary.

Bainimarama's government had withheld funding to the University of the South Pacific since 2020 after a dispute. Steven Ratuva, director of the Pacific studies centre at the University of Canterbury, said a new government was a "great opportunity for more progressive reform in Fiji which will have broader implications for the Pacific region, given Fiji's position as the regional, economic, political and communications hub".

"For the people of Fiji, it’s like a big burden has been unloaded off their collective consciousness after 16 years of Bainimarama rule," he added. "Bainimarama’s government has been accused of authoritarianism, vindictiveness, patronage, suppression of freedom of expression and nepotism all clothed and disguised under merit, efficiency, multiculturalism and inclusion."

Bainimarama, who has not spoken publicly since casting his vote a week ago, had a high international profile for climate change advocacy. He was also chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum, the regional diplomatic bloc, as it sought this year to manage rising security tensions between the United States and China.

Rabuka is also a former coup leader who previously served as prime minister for seven years from 1992.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)