For The People’s Alliance to win the general election, it must campaign on clear guidelines and policies.

This was the statement by Altaf Mohammed of Tacirua in Nasinu during a campaign meeting with The PA deputy party leader Lynda Tabuya at the Raibevu Church Hall in Tacirua on Tuesday night.

Mr Mohammed was part of the crowd that gathered at the Raibevu Church Hall.

He made the point during a Question-and-Answer Session with Ms Tabuya.

Mr Mohammed said while he believed Rabuka was a changed man.

“People don’t go for big talk, they are educated people and they need to know policies. That’s how the party should be thinking and campaigning,” he said.

“Today, the mentality of our cauravou (young men) is different, they are educated people. They know the know-how of politics.

“In our time when we voted was in 1977, only two parties existed back then – Alliance and NFP. So whatever rotten candidate was there the Indians would support the NFP and mostly the iTaukei would support the Alliance.”

“That mentality has moved away. Today, youths want to know what you can do for them; they are educated people,” Mr Mohammed said.

He said one thing he could not understand about the PA was why it accepted people who were defecting from other parties.

“Get in more young people, they are smart and stop bringing in the old people who are running around from one party to another.”

Tabuya’s Response

In her response on Tuesday night, Ms Tabuya thanked Mr Mohammed for his honesty.

“We have not released our manifesto; we will be releasing it in the coming weeks, but however as you know there are laws that require us to cost out our manifesto, if we make an election promise, we need to state how we are going to pay for it,” she said.

“If we fail to do so we can be guilty of an offence. Not like before where the party freely makes promises, so we are mindful of that.”

She also addressed the crowd on why the party was accepting those who had defected from SODELPA.

“I want to address the issue of members of other parties leaving to come to The PA, I am one of them, I left early this year. For the same reason Mosese Bulitavu left for FijiFirst early this year, it happens because of politics,” she said.

“The Members of Parliament, who have finished their term and have come over to PA, believe in the leadership of The PA and with them come the votes that are needed to win the elections. We can only win by numbers.

“We are here to ask for your support and we promise to be a Government that is very different from this Government.”

Story by: inoke.rabonu@fijisun.com.fj