The Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) provisional candidate, Aseri Radrodro, has withdrawn from his position as the acting deputy party leader.

He withdrew from his position during the Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday after the Naitasiri constituency’s motion to confirm Mr Radrodro as deputy party leader was not approved.

General secretary, Lenaitasi Duru, said he would await Mr Radrodro’s final decision in writing.

“Mr Radrodro made a statement that he was withdrawing from his position as the acting deputy party leader, but I have not received anything in writing so it is not official,” Mr Duru said.

“It will be in the minutes of the meeting, but he still has to do the right thing and put it in writing to be tabled to the management board.”

“I will have to table to the management board that the appointment has now been revoked by the appointee himself.”

Mr Duru said it was not the right place to move such a motion.

“There were some discussions and concerns raised because it was a SGM and the only item on the agenda was the endorsement of the provisional candidates,” he said.

“According to our constitution, the AGM or SGM doesn’t make the appointment of the deputy party leader.”

“That is the role of the management board and I had to advise the SGM on Saturday to refrain from making that appointment because that was unconstitutional.

“I reminded them of why we got suspended in 2020 and it was simply because people didn’t comply with the constitution so we were heading to almost another situation where the party would have been guilty of non-compliance to our constitution.”

Mr Radrodro was approached after the SGM for his comments but he redirected comments to be made by Mr Duru.

Meanwhile, following the endorsement of the 54 provisional candidates, provisional candidate Faith Grace was believed to have walked out of the meeting after Aseri Radrodro was nominated for the deputy leader position.

Ms Grace said the SGM was held only to endorse the provisional candidates and nominating the deputy leader position was not on the agenda.

She added she had nothing against Mr Radrodro, but wanted to see a woman also vying for this position.

Mr Gavoka said Mr Radrodro would continue to hold the acting deputy party leader position until proper procedure was followed for the appointment of the deputy leader.

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