Coup leader and Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama declared himself the ethnically divided Pacific nation’s new prime minister yesterday and promised “genuine democracy” and to work for all Fijians.
Following the first democratic election in eight years, he pledged to govern “for the well-being of all Fijians,” saying the country had “embraced a new future” after a series of coups sparked by ethnic tensions that rocked the islands.
Although the final count from Wednesday’s election has not been released, provisional results showed Bainimarama’s Fiji First Party heading toward a clear victory.
“My fellow Fijians, as you know Fiji First has won the general elections and I will lead the new government to serve the nation,” he said to thousands of cheering supporters gathered in a sports stadium.
The former military strongman’s victory declaration came after the Fiji Electoral Office put the Fiji First Party on 59.1 percent after votes had been counted at 88 percent of the polling booths.
This would give Fiji First 32 seats in the 50-seat parliament. The Social Democratic Liberal Party was a distant second at 28.3 percent.
“I give you my absolute promise that we will govern for the well-being of all Fijians,” Bainimarama said. “I am the prime minister for all Fijians. We have a vision of a prosperous, modern and an inclusive Fiji and we intend to achieve it.”
Bainimarama said he would head to New York in the coming days to attend the UN General Assembly and “tell the world what we have just accomplished in Fiji.”
“It will be a landmark occasion, because I promised the nation of Fiji and the international community that I will take Fiji to the first genuine democracy in our history and I have kept that promise,” he said.
Bainimarama, 60, seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2006 saying he needed to end widespread corruption and root out entrenched discrimination against ethnic Indians, who make up about 40 percent of the 900,000 population.
After the coup, regional powerhouses Australia and New Zealand labeled Bainimarama a dictator and imposed sanctions, while the Commonwealth and Pacific Islands Forum suspended Fiji’s membership when he reneged on a pledge to hold elections in 2009.
Sanctions were lifted this year to encourage the return to democracy, and Fiji was also allowed to compete in the July Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, following years of isolation.
Although opposition parties have complained of voting irregularities, a multinational observer group in Fiji to scrutinize the poll labeled it “credible” and representing the will of the people.
The election was considered pivotal to ending the country’s “coup culture,” which saw four governments toppled between 1987 and 2006, largely due to tensions between indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians.
In his speech Bainimarama specifically singled out the military “who have stood for the ideal of true democracy” as he acknowledged “their vision, their perseverance and their sacrifice.”
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