Dr Bavadra looks to poll

Press, 17 October 1987, Page 8

Dr Bavadra looks to poll

NZPA-AAP Viseisei, Fiji The deposed Prime Minister of Fiji, Dr Timoci Bavadra, says his Coalition Party will contest elections which the coup leader, Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, has said will btMield in a year. Dr Bavadra said he had agreed' to meet Colonel Rabuka, the head of Fiji’s military Government, after talks with an “intermediary.”

He has not said when they would meet. Dr Bavadra told AAP he was waiting to see the new constitution which Colonel Rabuka had said would be ready within a month, but “obviously if there are going to be elections, as a political party we will participate”. “We as a party still remain,” Dr Bavadra said. In a separate written

statement issued in his home village, Viseisei, Dr Bavadra said the former Fiji Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, had been left with no choice but to resign, “because he could no longer serve Her Majesty and her Constitution.”

"The ending of Fiji’s links with the British Crown will be felt with deep sorrow by all citizens of this country, regardless of their race,” said Dr Bavadra, whose Government was .overthrown in Colonel Rabuka’s first coup of May 14. '■

Fiji now faced the most testing period of its history, he said./ .

“It will be-a time of oppression under: a military-backed regime, a time of isolation from our traditional friends in the

world and a time of severe economic deprivation,” Dr Bavadra said ... But the' Coalition; was ready to engage in “constructive dialogue towards a solution.” .

“We stand by our commitment to the basic principles of representative democracy, regardless of race, religion or political belief,” he said. ; > Dr Bavadra’s statement said Fiji’s expulsion from the Commonwealth and the severance of ties with the Crown “became inevitable" after the second coup. i-/

“The consequences of the Army’s action, against which the Coalition had frequently warned, are something that we, the people of Fiji;-must now all face,”. Dr Bavadra Said.

Dr Bavadra said he had

not yet made up bis mind about what to do next. But he said he would remain in Viseisei and mefet any-one-who wished to consult him. \ “My basic responsibility is to be with the people and serve the people” he said.- r .

• He . also said he was ready to lend whatever ■ help he could to efforts to find a way out of Fiji's crisis,In his statement, pr Bavadra hit out at Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara’s Alliance Party Oyer the failure of the so-called Deuba Accord on, a powersharing caretaker Government.

The accord was one of the reasons' given by Colonel Rabuka for 'the staging of his second coup.