Opposition Whip Alvick Maharaj tags termination as Personal

Opposition Whip Alvick Maharaj believes his termination from FijiFirst party is “personal”.

Mr Maharaj was the first Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) to receive his termination letter on Thursday. The party terminated 16 of its MPs who voted in favour of salary increase in Parliament on May 24. That termination included Mr Maharaj but he did not vote on the motion.

He is also a member of the Emoluments Committee which presented the salary increase in Parliament but was one of the members opposing the increase.

“I’m questioning my termination on the basis if you look at the parliamentary video, I stood up and opposed in front of the whole country,” Mr Maharaj said.

“If I actually oppose in front of the whole country and then the party terminates me on the basis that I haven’t voted when they actually informed everyone to vote against or abstained.

“I think it’s personal, somebody has something against me in the party and wants to remove me.”

Mr Maharaj alleges that political influence might be the reason for his termination from the party. In the 2022 General Election, Mr Maharaj was one of the party’s main contenders, garnering 1573 votes.

“On what grounds they have actually terminated me? That’s my question,” Mr Maharaj said.

“It’s definitely does not have to do anything with the voting, hypothetically it’s personal that somebody has something against me.”

Attempts were made to seek comments from the party’s acting general secretary Faiyaz Koya but were unsuccessful when this edition went to press.

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