20 Feb 2008

Fiji Women's Council against Bainimarama in GCC top role

4:12 pm on 20 February 2008

The National Council of Women in Fiji has added its name to the list of organisations opposed to Commodore Frank Bainimarama's decision to assume the role of chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs.

The women council's vice-president, Asela Naisara, says the move by the coup leader and interim prime minister must be reviewed.

She has told Radio Fiji that the Great Council of Chiefs is held in high esteem with all the communities and Fiji needs to get all the chiefs to decide who is to be the chairman.

The GCC is the authority to elect the president.

Commodore Bainimarama purported to be the interim president for a month after the 2006 coup but after the GCC refused to approve his auto-proclamation, he decided to leave the presidential title with President Ratu Josefa Iloilo.