GCC off if chiefs don’t support

GCC off if chiefs don’t support
22 MAY 2008 - www.fijilive.com
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The Great Council of Chiefs will not convene to appoint a Vice President if chiefs from the various provinces do not cooperate with the interim Government, Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama said today.

“If there is no quorum then the GCC is going to be cancelled,” he told Fijilive.

This after majority of the provinces consulted so far have rejected the People’s Charter process and the interim Government’s decision to restructure the GCC.

Bainimarama, who is also the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, said it’s time that he had a good look at all the 14 provinces.

Bainimarama said being a Government body, it is the provincial council’s role to cooperate and inform its chiefs about his administration’s initiatives.

“The provincial councils do not have the right to stop the (People’s) Charter process,” said Bainimarama.

“Their work is to create awareness and not to decide for the Government”.

Bainimarama said that his Cabinet has approved that each of the chief’s councils or ‘bose vanua’ of the provinces are to nominate three representatives each to the GCC.

The new-look GCC was scheduled to convene mid-year after consultation with the provinces.

Its first role was to appoint a deputy for aging President Ratu Josefa Iloilo.