By MAIKA BOLATIKI

Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry has denied he sent the Prime Minister’s Officer an expression of interest in membership of the Constituent Assembly.
However, the Prime Minister’s Office said it had received a letter and interpreted this as an expression of interest.
Mr Chaudhry said that the Labour Party had written to the Permanent Secretary, Prime Minister’s Office Lieutenant-Colonel Pio Tikoduadua, seeking information on:-
q the size of the Constituent Assembly, ie, total number of members;
q the allocation for each political party, civil society and other organisations invited;
q and the criteria to be used to decide on seat allocation; and the number of seats to be allocated to the Fiji Labour Party.
According to the Labour leader, that letter had not been acknowledged or responded to.
“Our position is that the composition of the Assembly must be transparent and fair and take full cognisance of the elected representatives of the people,” he said.

TIKODUADUA REPLY

When contacted yesterday, Lieutenant-Colonel Tikoduadua said he had received the letter. His interpretation is that the Labour Party has shown interest in becoming a member of the Assembly. A call for expressions of interest had been advertised.
“In my interpretation by making queries on the Assembly is an indication that Labour wants to be a member,” Lieutenant-Colonel Tikoduadua said.
“FLP will surely have a different interpretation but I’d just like to inform them that Mr Chaudhry’s name is on the list of applicants because he sent the queries.”
The Permanent Secretary said it was up to Labour to withdraw if they wanted as that was their own decision.
He said the naming of the assembly members would be the sole prerogative of the Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama. The Constituent Assembly will publicly debate the draft constitution submitted by Professor Yash Ghai’s Constitution Commission.  The Assembly will decide the final constitution, under which Fiji will go to elections next year.