Tevita Momoedonu - Interim Minister; Second Appointment As Prime Minister

Interim Minister; Second Appointment As Prime Minister

Momoedonu served as Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations in the interim Cabinet formed by Laisenia Qarase in the midst of the upheaval that followed the coup. He held this position until September 2001.

Momoedonu's second appointment as Prime Minister, on 14 March 2001, came in the wake of an Appeals Court verdict that the interim government of President Josefa Iloilo and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, both of whom had taken office when the coup had been put down, was unconstitutional, and ordered that the previous government be reinstated. That would mean reinstating Ratu Mara as President or else convening the Great Council of Chiefs to elect a new President. Mara moved to spare the country further constitutional trauma by resigning officially, retroactive to May 29, 2000 (the day on which he had been deposed), thereby validating the Iloilo regime, which was duly affirmed by the Great Council of Chiefs. The court verdict was also widely interpreted to mean that Mahendra Chaudhry should be reinstated as Prime Minister, but President Iloilo disagreed. He argued that defections from Chaudhry's Labour Party meant that he no longer had majority support in the House of Representatives, and therefore the President was not obliged to appoint him.

Iloilo had apparently decided already that the best way forward for Fiji was to take the question of the country's leadership back to the people, but he could not constitutionally call an early election except on the advice of the Prime Minister - advice that he was sure Chaudhry would refuse to render. He therefore appointed Momoedonu. There was a legal argument, albeit a flimsy one, that as the last "lawfully appointed" Prime Minister under the last constitutional President, Ratu Mara, Momoedonu should be reappointed. Cynics, including former House of Representatives Speaker Tomasi Vakatora, saw the appointment more as a case of nepotism: Momoedonu was President Iloilo's nephew. The appointment, although brief, entitled him to a lifetime pension amounting to 20 percent of the Prime Minister's salary.

Momoedonu rendered his formal advice to President Iloilo to dissolve Parliament and call a general election. Mission accomplished, Momoedonu resigned the next day, allowing Laisenia Qarase to resume the office of Prime Minister. In the ensuing election, Qarase was confirmed as Prime Minister when his newly-formed United Fiji Party won a plurality. Momoedonu, however, stood as a candidate for the House of Representatives on the Bei Kai Viti Party ticket, but was defeated.