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Deposed PM to join Fiji government

Chaudhry
Chaudhry has accepted a seat in Qarase's government  


SUVA, Fiji -- Fiji's deposed prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry has accepted an invitation from the country's new prime minister to join his government.

"If you could be in government, what fool in politics would want to be in the opposition?" Chaudhry told reporters after accepting the invitation from Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.

"Its serious business running a strife-torn country like ours," said Chaudhry, an ethnic Indian who was thrown from office in a racially-inspired coup in May 2000.

Qarase was sworn in as prime minister on Monday after his nationalist party won 31 seats in the 71-seat parliament in post-coup elections which ended last Friday.

The new prime minister said earlier that a Qarase-Chaudhry government was not workable, to which Chaudhry responded, "the ball is now in his court."

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Chaudhry won only 27 seats, but any party with eight seats must be invited to join the government under Fiji's multi-racial 1997 constitution.

Qarese was sworn in at 10 a.m. Monday (2200 GMT Sunday) by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo at Government House for a five-year term.

The new prime minister told media he had the numbers to form government and his swearing in was the right procedure under the Fijian constitution.

Qarese said Monday he had spoken to all the minor parties, including the Conservative Alliance, and the ultimate make-up of the government would be revealed in the next 24 hours.

It is not known whether the deal-making will include an amnesty for George Speight, who attempted to overthrow the Chaudhry government in May last year, as outlined in the Conservative Alliance manifesto.

However, Qarese did say he would go forward with his party's manifesto, which includes Speight having to undergo the due process of the law.

Speight is currently imprisoned and undergoing a trial for treason for his actions, which included holding Chaudhry and members of his government hostage for 56 days.

Return to indigenous power

Qarase's appointment effectively gives the hardline nationalist coup plotters what they were demanding -- a return of political power to indigenous Fijians.

The coup ousted Chaudhry, the first prime minister from Fiji's 44-percent ethnic Indian minority.

Many indigenous Fijians, who make up 51 percent of the country's 820,000 people, believe Indians, first brought to the country in the 19th century to work in sugar cane fields, wield too much political and economic clout.

Fiji has been disrupted by three armed coups since 1987, and many see Qarase as the country's last chance for stability.

Thousands of skilled ethnic Indians have fled to other countries in the wake of the coups and renewed tensions between the two main racial groups.

Meanwhile, Chaudhry has claimed part of the voting process was rigged and on Sunday said he planned to go to the high court alleging vote fraud in at least six seats.

Chaudhry is believed to have teamed with a minor party to file an injunction in Suva Monday over claims of vote-rigging in predominantly Labour stronghold electorates.






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