National Federation Party (NFP) leader Biman Prasad believes comments made by former provisional candidate Hiroshi Taniguchi will not affect their vote in the 2022 General Election.

On his website, Mr Hiroshi stated his plan to expel 20 per cent of the civil service workforce, was because the Government was “quite chubby”.

His other plan was for mataqali land to be subdivided whereby landowners could either sell or lease it out, and the new owner had the right of ownership.

Mr Prasad said in a press conference last Friday that these were not NFP policies.

“When we announced the 33 candidates, we had a two-day workshop here. We explained to them clearly what the party’s policies and platforms are,” he said.

“We explained to them what candidates should or should not do or say and unfortunately Mr Hiroshi did the opposite and the party had to take a decision.”

“We have taken the decision and I think for us that’s the end of the matter, but the people are not that gullible. People understand NFP’s history of working together.”

He claimed the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) and Fiji Sun have an agenda to bring disrepute to the party.

“You know who they are targeting and which section of the voters they are targeting. This is the same thing they did in 2018,” he said.

“Our people are not fools, our people are not gullible, the people know what NFP stands for and they understand our policies.

“We will be releasing our vision and mission and objective of what we will do in government as soon as we know when the election is going to be held,” he said.

Mr Taniguchi had his candidacy revoked last Thursday.

Story By: Nacanieli Tuilevuka

Feedback: nacanieli@fijisun.com.fj