Fiji kingmaker speaks after election tally

Dominic Giannini | December 19, 2022

Fijians may not know who will govern them into the new year until after Christmas with the party holding the balance of power vowing to take its time before reaching a decision.

Viliame Gavoka’s Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) is negotiating with Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s FijiFirst government, which holds 42 per cent of the vote, and People’s Alliance, which has 36 per cent.

The National Federation Party – who have pledged to support People’s Alliance – ended up with nine per cent and SODELPA just above five.

Negotiators have a timeline of 14 days.

FijiFirst will command 26 seats in the expanded 55-member parliament, while People’s Alliance will have 21, the National Federation five, and SODELPA three.

Gavoka says non-negotiables include priority Indigenous affairs and education policies as well as establishing an embassy in Jerusalem.

The party campaigned on free tertiary education, $159 million ($A107.8 million) a year for Indigenous affairs and extra protections for Indigenous land rights.

“Our base is the Indigenous people of this country and those issues have always been paramount with us,” he said.

The deeply religious Gavoka said Fiji was a Christian country and policies would be underpinned by that principle, but he poured cold water on speculation he was seeking to establish a Christian state.

“We have a secular state in Fiji but … we are very much a Christian people and that will be dominant in the way we do things as a government,” he said.

Ministries and the potential for Gavoka to become deputy prime minister above the leader of the larger NFP party in the possible tripartite coalition remain on the table.

He says any government he leads will not sign a bilateral security arrangement with China, and will align closely with Australia and New Zealand and with members of the Pacific Islands Forum on the international stage.

“I know the Solomon Islands have gone out a bit and done the security thing with the Chinese, we won’t do that,” he said.

“We will go with our traditional partners of Australia and New Zealand.”

But he will also push the two nations to join a compensation scheme for the descendants of indentured Indian labourers in Fiji, into which he would put $10 million ($A6.78 million) into each year.

NFP leader Biman Prasad said Fiji had expressed a will for change, with some 58 per cent voting to expel FijiFirst.

“People have given a clear mandate to the opposition parties and they have indicated their desire for a new government,” he said.

Gavoka defended potentially working with FijiFirst after leading the opposition and running on a “time for change” platform, saying he’d continue to work in his supporters’ interests.

People’s Alliance leader Sitiveni Rabuka said his party and SODELPA were more ideologically aligned.

Rabuka, himself a former coup leader turned prime minister, was ousted by Gavoka as SODELPA leader in the last term of parliament, which led him to establish the People’s Alliance.

“It’s natural for us to forge a coalition because when we look at our policies, they are in harmony,” he said.

But Rabuka was more apprehensive when asked about Gavoka’s foreign policy, saying working with regional partners would not “take away our sovereign rights to conduct our bilateral relationships”.

“At the moment we are bound by the collective agreement we have with our traditional allies in the Pacific,” he said, adding Fiji couldn’t just break away from those.

But he noted that “collective, regional and bilateral relationships differ”, saying he wanted to maintain his good relationships with Chinese, Indian, Pacific islands and other world leaders.

This article was made possible through the Melbourne Press Club’s Michael Gordon Journalism Fellowship Program.