4 Jul 2006

Fiji Labour Senator dropped from nominees list wants apology from Mahendra Chaudhry

9:23 am on 4 July 2006

A former Fiji Labour Party senator, Ponipate Lesavua, has threatened to reveal how the party's disputed leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, manipulated the Ba high chief, Ratu Sairusi Nagagavokla.

Mr Lesavua is also leader of the Party of National Unity (PANU) which was Labour's coalition partner in the general election but he has been dropped from Mr Chaudhry's disputed list of senate nominees.

He has told the FIJI SUN that when the Party of National Unity entered into a coalition with Labour, Mr Chaudhry promised to appoint a senator from the party.

Mr Lesavua says Mr Chaudhry owes an apology for not nominating a member of his party to the senate and failure to apologise will result in a spill of information.

Mr Lesavua says Mr Chaudhry's integrity is in question and he "needs to change his attitude because what he is doing makes him look like a hypocrite."

He has also expressed regret for taking his party into a coalition with Labour.

Mr Chaudhry, who is in Hong Kong, has declined to comment on Mr Lesavua's allegations.