The FijiFirst appeal was beginning to wane and voters deserted the party “because of what they saw as their authoritarian, non-inclusive, controlling and vindictive style of leadership”, says renowned Fijian academic and director of the University of Canterbury’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, Professor Steven Ratuva.
He also said “the writing was on the wall for the Voreqe Bainimarama-led party for some time”.
“People could hardly openly complain and criticise the Government as one would expect in a democracy, fearing the consequences,” he said.
Referring to the internal issues erupting within the Social Democratic Liberal Party, he said it was time to respect the wishes of voters rather than the hunger for power and grievances of individual political players.
He said the SODELPA split which led to the formation of The People’s Alliance was unfortunate “with lots of bruised souls and egos who harboured very deep resentment and clamor for vengeance”.
The issue was a complex mixture of “traditional vanua politics, personality power struggle and liumuri (backstabbing)” that was now unashamedly being played out in public.
