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# RABUKA’S TRUCK THROUGH SODELPA

Posted on November 29, 2021 1 Comment

Filimoni Vosarogo

And so it begins. The unravelling of SODELPA as its Deputy Leader, Filimoni Vosarogo, resigns to join Sitiveni Rabuka’s People’s Alliance. We had a hint of this on the weekend when Vosarogo was pictured in the Fiji Times with the star Alliance recruit, Ajay Amrit, above an article in which Amrit expressed glowing admiration for the prominent Suva lawyer.

Changed allegiance: The deputy defects

The loss of someone of the calibre of Vosarogo is a huge blow to SODELPA and its leader, Viliame Gavoka, and the big question now isn’t whether others will follow him but whether it is a trickle or a stampede. If it is the latter, then it signals the end of SODELPA’s hold on those iTaukei voters who will never vote for FijiFirst and it could wind up as a rump in the next parliament.

There’s an intriguing story doing the rounds that indicates that the split in SODELPA is much more serious than generally acknowledged and certainly for Gavoka and his chief patron among the “big three” high chiefs who are the party’s power brokers – the Bau chief Ratu Epenisa Cakobau.

Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu

This story has it that on the eve of Sitiveni Rabuka’s launch of the People’s Alliance in Nadi on October 11, another member of the “big three” – the high chief of Cakaudrove and SODELPA MP, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu – who happens to be Rabuka’s chief – led a delegation of SODELPA members to a meeting with the People’s Alliance leader. At that meeting, they are said to have presented him with a “soli” – a donation – and pledged the allegiance of no fewer than 15 senior SODELPA members. Even if that number eventually proves to be inflated, it is astonishing that Ratu Naiqama led a delegation to Rabuka in the first place.

Ro Teimumu Kepa

Did he have the backing in doing so of the other member of the “big three” – the Rewa high chief and former SODELPA leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa? Or has Ratu Naiqama gone rogue – parting company with the other two chiefly luminaries in a clear sign that he too is going to defect and join the Alliance, taking with him a huge swag of votes from Vanua Levu?

Whatever eventuates – and all eyes are now on Lynda Tabuya, another SODELPA “new generation” star and close Rabuka associate, to see if she follows Vosarogo – it is a nightmare for SODELPA’s current leader, Gavoka, who is already widely regarded as a “dead man walking” as he struggles under the burden of a lacklustre performance in the parliament and being father-in-law to the government’s number two – Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

Lynda Tabuya: Is she next?

If Gavoka can’t hold the rest of the party together in the immediate aftermath of Vosarogo’s defection, he won’t only be toast but there’ll be a big question mark over SODELPA’s very existence. Sitiveni Rabuka will have driven a truck through the party he once led, cherry-picked its most talented and electorally appealing people, and left it as a shell of its former self.

The CJ Patel Fiji Sun – on behalf of its patron, the AG – keeps highlighting the divisions in SODELPA hoping to benefit FijiFirst. Yet the irony is that those stories are actually benefiting the People’s Alliance – now a far bigger threat to the AG as Rabuka works behind the scenes to craft a new team designed to sweep the FijiFirst government from office. Filimoni Vosarogo – SODELPA’s deputy leader – is now a member of that team and a potent player.

https://www.fijivillage.com/news/Vosarogo-resigns-as-SODELPA-Deputy-Leader-to-join-Sitiveni-Rabuka–fx54r8/

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ratu Penaia Verebalavu says

    November 29, 2021 at 8:32 pm

    Tell us something that we don’t already know. This is public news. No one is irreplaceable in politics. SODELPA will rise like an eagle with new purpose and vision, good governance, and no military baggage. Vanua politics is only relevant to those itaukei who can’t think for themselves. In fact the young voters (70% of voters) are more educated and not interested in vanua politics It has no place in this day and age.

    Reply

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About Grubsheet

Graham Davis
Grubsheet Feejee is the blogsite of Graham Davis, an award-winning journalist turned communications consultant who was the Fijian Government’s principal communications advisor for six years from 2012 to 2018 and continued to work on Fiji’s global climate and oceans campaign up until the end of the decade.

 

Fiji-born to missionary parents and a dual Fijian-Australian national, Graham spent four decades in the international media before returning to Fiji to work full time in 2012. He reported from many parts of the world for the BBC, ABC, SBS, the Nine and Seven Networks and Sky News and wrote for a range of newspapers and magazines in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

 

Graham launched Grubsheet Feejee in 2011 and suspended writing for it after the Fijian election of 2014, by which time he was working at the heart of government. But the website continued to attract hits as a background resource on events in Fiji in the transition back to parliamentary democracy.

 

Grubsheet relaunches in 2020 at one of the most critical times in Fijian history, with the nation reeling from the Covid-19 crisis and Frank Bainimarama’s government shouldering the twin burdens of incumbency and economic disintegration.

 

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