I don’t know about you, Fiji, but my first reaction to the news that Mahendra Chaudhry and Savenaca Narube are joining forces for the 2026 election was decidedly “ho-hum”. Neither Chaudhry’s Labour Party nor Narube’s Unity Party managed to scrape together the 5 per cent share of the vote needed to secure any seats in 2022. And neither seems capable of projecting an image of vigour necessary to capture the public imagination in their own right.
The former prime minister was born in Ba in February 1942 – two and a half years into the Second World War – and will be nearly 85 when the 2026 election comes around. And Savenaca Narube – the former Reserve Bank governor – still carries the ignominy of his main sidekick, Mick Beddoes, failing to register on time for the last election and turning a whole lot of fancy words to dust.
Notwithstanding that, Chaudhry and Narube deserve considerable credit for stepping up in recent months to become the main opposition figures in politics, if not the parliament. Seriously, where would we be without them after the collapse of FijiFirst? The official “Opposition leader”, Inia Seruiratu, has had his bark removed since his salary was doubled and he received a house. And his “Gang of 16” – with the honourable exception of Premila Kumar – simply aren’t doing their jobs. We pay you to oppose, fellas, not go along for the ride.
As for the treasonous “Gang of Nine” former FijiFirst MPs, the less said the better. Having been sent to parliament to keep the bastards honest, what have they done instead? Become bastards themselves – Sitiveni Rabuka‘s conga line of “yes men” (there are no women). They might have freed Rabuka of his dependence on Biman Prasad and the NFP to stay in government but the likes of Ioane Naivalurua, Viliame Naupoto and the loathsome Mosese Bulitavu have betrayed the rest of us and deserve to be shot. Figuratively, of course, when the voters come to pass judgment on polling day.
So until the promised “new force” in politics – supposedly multiracial and with roots in the West – emerges to shake up the existing order (and Grubsheet understands preparations for that will move into gear in the New Year), Labour and Unity is as good as it gets for anyone disgusted with the antics of the Coalition.
Mahendra Chaudhry is spot on when he talks about the government’s dysfunction and moral turpitude. In the colourful parlance of one Grubsheet intimate, “Sitiveni Rabuka couldn’t organise a f**k in a brothel”, even with the Minister for Bonking and Weed in tow.
Where is the promised inquiry into the circumstances of Barbara Malimali‘s appointment to FICAC? Why having promised that the chiefs would be merely consultative are they now asserting their right to political power? Why hasn’t DPP Christopher Pryde‘s salary been restored to enable him to defend himself before a tribunal next month? Where are the local government elections? Across a broad front, the government is a shambles, with no-one in the parliament to bring it to account.
If the Coalition parties – and especially the People’s Alliance – think two years out that they are going to coast to victory in 2026, then they have no idea of the groundswell of anger against them. They genuinely seem to think they are loved and respected when they are increasingly loathed and reviled. And so Mahendra Chaudhry is also spot on to have told his troops at the weekend that an opportunity exists for Labour to at least partly fill the void left by the collapse of FijiFirst.
So the old dog of Fijian politics is mobilising. The question is whether Labour and Unity will have sufficient bite. And Grubsheet personally doubts it without a huge infusion of fresh talent into both parties.
If Chaudhry’s perennial handmaiden, Monica Raghwan, is the answer to the question “who is the future of Labour?” then the response of most people will be “Monica who?”. And that’s the number one problem in Fijian politics – the lack of charismatic political alternatives to the big names like Rabuka and Bainimarama needed to take whole teams of MPs across the line under the Curse of d’Hondt.
That said, you have to hand it to Mahendra Chaudhry for still being willing to have a go. It isn’t hard to understand the burning sense of injustice that must drive the man, having become Fiji’s first Indo-Fijian prime minister in 1999 but then having the prize seized from him exactly a year later by the racist traitors who should have been hanged or jailed for life but now wander the streets a quarter of a century on thanks to the “Snake”.
Chaudhry genuinely seems to think that he can regain the prize and be prime minister at 85. The hourglass of time can be very cruel for those whose ambition still burns within them. But the Labour leader deserves our respect not just for persistence but for his role as de-facto opposition leader in recent months, holding the Rabuka Rabble to at least a modicum of account.
The NFP’s latest attack on him is ample demonstration in itself that Biman Prasad and his stooges know the damage Mahendra Chaudhry is doing to their electoral base. As far as Grubsheet is concerned, even if Chaudhry’s sole remaining political legacy is to destroy the NFP at the next election, that will be a singular service to politics and the nation. Because their betrayal of the minorities in government – the constant enabling and appeasement, the self-enrichment and the abandonment of all principle – has been genuinely unforgivable.
Native Fijians will continue to vote for PAP and make the party win since Sitiveni and his party represent Native Fijians.
The i’taukei majority will vote for their own. Look to the PAP being returned with a greater majority in 2026.
Yes, the blind being led by the manipulative. The iTaukei as a whole have no self-respect.
So by your own logic Indians who vote for their own kind (and they have blockvoted in the past) also have no self respect?
“Their own kind”. What a giveaway. What’s your “kind”? Intolerant and racist?
No you imbecile. A vast majority of the Indo Fijians voted for an itaukei in the last election. So that should be evidence enough to show that unlike the sheep led by the blind, Indo Fijians don’t vote on ethnic lines
The only thing that PAP and Rabuka represent are their pockets.
They do not represent indigenous Fijians.
They are in power now by a mere one seat in parliament with the help of SODELPA and NFP.
Indigenous Fijians also voted for SODELPA, NFP and Fiji First and some UFP and FLP. Other races also voted NFP and SODELPA that enabled PAP to lead the current coalition.
PAP is in power because people wanted change from FB and ASK who became megalomaniacs.
The current leaders are heading that same direction very quickly.
Now we see the damage Aiyaz did over a dozen years so by eliminating emerging leaders who may have challenged his total control.
He and Frank did the country a disservice with their dummy spit after the election, boycotting Parliament and depriving the country the benefit of an Opposition.
If they had swallowed their pride, stuck it out and respected the power that through the people only Parliament provides, how strong would their position have been now? But neither of them were able to see beyond their own noses. And people had had enough of them anyway.
The joke in the West before the last election was that you might as well just vote for your goat. As it turned out it was in fact the old goat they got, and with the mess in Parliament now, a lot more old goats have wandered back onto the scene… and some are making noise.
Answer? A completely free and fair election. Allow the younger ones to come forward, to be heard, and let the people decide.
PS.: Income/Poverty Levels in Fiji
Dear Grubsheet,
FYI –
Last weekend Consumer Commission FJ published their latest findings in newspapers: 82% of HOUSEHOLDS are under $15,000 pa. only 7 % of households earn more than $25,000 p.a.
Surprisingly not more ‘noise’ about the latest shocking findings… ?
Kind regards,
Axel
At the end of the day, the sole reason that Chaudhry is so vehemently campaigning against this government and NFP in particular is that he still carries the hatred and jealousy of NFP and Jai Ram Reddy that he has held since the 1990’s. Of course, he also wants to be in government to allow his son back in the country and recoup the million dollars that he was forced to give up. But Chaudhry hates the fact that the NFP is in government while he is wandering the political wilderness that he once banished NFP to in 1999 and the subsequent two elections. I don’t know whether Chaudhry is choosing to ignore or has forgotten the fact that even when Labour was at its peak after forming government in 1999 NFP had decimated it at the local elections level. I don’t know what a Labour Party which is a shell of its former self can muster up. Maybe it can replicate the efforts of NFP in the 2000’s at local government elections and sweep the board.
MC will always carry the baggage of the $2m received from India after he was ousted. His popularity waned after that and remains so till now. He is the only effective opposition at this point. But to get the country back to have some standards of decency in the judiciary and in government Fiji needs a miracle. Because the people of Fiji are mostly all donkeys.
FLP and UFP did not get over the 5% threshold last election because many people just wanted change. They wanted Fiji First removed. More accurately Frank and Khaiyum removed.
Many recognised that the best chances of that happening was to vote for Rabuka and PAP. Many of these voters don’t even like Rabuka because of his past. But change they wanted.
And change happened, albeit by a margin of 1 seat. And we all hoped that NFP will hold the balance of power and pull government policies to the middle.
Two years in, many of these people who voted for the change have figured out that the current government is no better than the last one. In fact, worse than Fiji First. NFP betrayed the trust put in them by those who voted for them.
The indigenous Fijians feel betrayed because not a single one of them have become a millionaire as promised by PAP. No natives have become richer or better off. And soon enough they will figure out that no government will ever be able to do that for them. And hopefully they will stop voting along racial lines.
In fact, all of us are worse off in every single aspect I can think of.
Frank and Khaiyum betrayed Fiji First voters by splitting and the remaining spineless FF members did the unthinkable. Abandoned their principles.
So there is a big vacuum out there. Any party other than the current clowns in parliament will get enough support to get over the threshold.
I think UFP by their mere presence in the last 2 elections can do much better this time around. They just need to brand themselves better and get some good candidates.
I’m not sure working with Chaudhary is a good idea for them. Anyone that has worked with him will tell you that he is just as bad a control freak as Khaiyum.
As for FLP, Chaudhry is tainted and NFP will make sure everyone knows that. And they don’t have a credible emerging leader.
Any new party setting up between now and 2026 will need to have a charismatic leader to have any chance because of our D’Hondt system.
And as GD has correctly stated, we just don’t have any people of that calibre around. A direct result of old politicians not knowing when to go home. No succession planning.
old politicians will only go home when there is a COUP
They may do better than the last elections. Chaudhary should just take a ministerial position should he win. He is, as someone has pointed out a control freak. It’s quite painful to hear Narube when he speaks. So dragged out that one loses interest. I believe in the next elections the votes will be so split that there may be another coalition government. NFP will be buried once and for all. A north Indian has totally destroyed a predominantly south Indian party and how.
Lastly have the chiefs started doing any work or waiting for the constitution to change. Their excuse that that could not meet for the last 16 years is a laugh. You don’t have to meet to serve your people. They could have simply gone about quietly doing their work. Technology is there. They just sat under the mango trees doing nothing for their people.
In politics 24 hours can spell a life-time. Anything can happen between now and the 2026 general election. The itaukei are not blind. They can see the PAP is just a Cakaudrove Party. All top posts go to Cakaudrove people with no special skills.
Rabuka has held true to his boast at his first campaign speech at Labasa in 2022. He gave statistics on the high number of Kai Cakaudrove who prosoered under his leadership as PM in the period 1992 – 1999.
There will be a taukei swing in 2026, That’s for sure. PAP has invested heavily already in campaigning in the west.
The game is wide open. There is talk of two parties starting up in the west let’s see what they bring to the table.
NFP swing voters have abandoned the party. Biman Prasad’s mojo is finished.
Watch for Labour to spring a surprise, and with an improved slate of candidates by Unity Party they have a better chance now than in 2022 of getting over the threshold.
Unfortunately the masses will still vote for the current lot of a$$es in the parliament.
The people of Fiji will again vote against their own self interest, against their children’s future and against a safe and prosperous Fiji.
The majority Itaukei will vote for the coup leader Rabuka because they have been turned into an IndoFijian hating lot. There aren’t many IndoFijians left in Fiji so their votes won’t even matter, and I don’t think many that remain are even interested in who runs the government. They are busy educating their kids so that they can migrate.
One thing is sure though, come next elections, the cowards from NFP will be buried, just like in 1999.
If anything, Chaudhary and Narube should have done this last elections, at least they would have had some leverage now. In 2026, no one will vote for them. The people in fiji just hate each other too much now.
@Unfortunate truth:
Good and fair crystal-gazing analysis of the political scape.
Allow me to respectfully respond to this part: One thing is sure though, come next elections, the cowards from NFP will be buried, just like in 1999. end quote.
NFP under the current traitorous leadership has and will maintain 90% of all Indo- Labasa diaspora vote. They are a large and loyal voting block for NFP. A big majority of this vote bank is concentrated in the central division and they turn out to vote. The northern division die hards (Dreketi/Bua) will add to this block.
‘You come alone, eh’ Baiman and ‘ferris wheel ‘Agni, ‘weeping apologist’ Sashi and queen Lenora’s presence will ensure NFP easily clears the 5% threshold with 2006 coup benefactor Pio.
Together they formed a formidable team and won between 2000 to 12000 votes individually (happy to be corrected). Pio has his 3000+ voter base (Tailevu included), Lenora (Kadavu/Nadroga), Sashi (Lautoka/western) and the chutney crowd.
The point is this a large voting block that is unlikely to switch parties. If we add to this the newly eligible young voters, then NFP are likely to increase their numbers in parliament- with a few more candidates riding in on the coattails of baiman and ferris wheels.
We know how voter love to be taken for a ride. Therefore, one might say NFP’s demise is largely exaggerated.
Labor/UFP won’t be a factor. One has run his course and the other does not inspire charisma nor confidence.
That being said, I couldn’t agree more with the rest of your comments. Peace.
Mahendra knows that with Fiji First gone and people hating Bee-man and NFP, and that there is hardly any opposition left, so it is now or never for him and FLP. So this is the perfect time for Mahendra to strike and act like a savior. If he doesn’t get into government by 2026, then by 2030 he will be too old to be a minister or even Prime Minister. He’ll be reaching 90 then. But if he does become PM in 2030 and serves till 2034, then he will be over the age of 90 and become the oldest Prime Minister Fiji has had. I actually want to see Mahendra becoming Prime Minister of Fiji and FLP forming government. I want to see what it will be like. What Mahendra, his boys and FLP can achieve? Will their government be any good? Or will it be another embarrassment like the coalition government now?
Part of a statement from Pio Tikoduadua on the FBC website.
“….any violation will be addressed decisively to protect the interests of the nation.”
This was to announce to Fiji and the world that immigration officiandos and police were on their way to arrest and deport the porn workers from the Uk.
Well Mr Tikoduadua, thanks for the very swift action on your part to protect the interests of the nation.
Can you please explain a few contradictions:
1. Why didn’t you, or whoever in power is responsible, move quickly to prevent the current administration from installing a morally bankrupt president?
2. Why didn’t you swiftly act on other pertinent issues involving your department, in regards to the different allegations surrounding your corrupt leader, Biman Prasad?
You have only done this with great fanfare to show the international community that you can act swiftly in situations like this. This is hypocrisy at the highest level.
Why didn’t you protect the interests of Fiji when this pedo President was nominated?
Please tell us the truth whether you honestly want to protect the interests of the Fiji people without favour or fear, or no?
We look forward to your honest response.
Uh oh. Pio’s painted into a corner now.
The big song and dance (in hindi parlance: band bajah)
announcement attracts donor attention.
Pio is saying ‘look at me! Look at me busting prostitution rings! Give us funds for new stuff and give us training! Send me to a conference!’
As he drives by in a clown car….
The announcement shows how bankrupt the political landscape in Fiji is. As GD pointed out neither gained the threshold at the last Election and are led by people pass their use by date.
Chaudhary is, in my view, too old and has no relevance to a voting population that has most of them being half his age or less. Who is the future leader of the FLP?
As for Narube he continues a political dialogue that is too long and takes 1000 words to say something that only needs 20. His advisor (Mick Beddoes) is also past his use by date.
The future of Fiji cannot continue to be in the hands of old men!
The next election has to be about the future Fiji, not the past 40 years and the insane battles over race, revenge and attempting to take it back to the past!
The country needs to have fresh parties, with young, articulate and well-educated leaders emerge who can ditch the past and paint an agenda for the future of Fiji. The current crop of parties and leaders don’t or won’t do that. They are anchored in the past!
Itaukei can buy an item for a thousand dollars without knowing it’s real value and if it’s worth a thousand dollars.
The same item a kaindia will buy for much less as Indians don’t buy without a bargain and know its worth.
Now when itaukei has a leqa ,the same item of thousand dollars they can just sell for 100 dollars or a box of beers.
Again they don’t know the value of item.
Indians will not leqa as they can easily budget or just having salt and rice for dinner .
Same goes during election time.
Itaukei is given forks and knives , they will vote for that party or person who has given them some freebies.
Why,because again they doesn’t know the value .
Today itaukei has caused own problems for themselves is because they don’t know the value .
A new car will have dents all around and only after a year it would look like 10 years old.
Again they don’t value .
Land is ideal
They don’t know the value of their property.
Sea is all around but they value canned one.
Tavioka is planted so easily but they value noodles.
The day itaukei learns to value things they will have success than other races.
They need to know the value of the ticks in a election .
Those forks and knives and free sulu is the result of what Fiji is experiencing today.
Itaukei doesn’t know what “value” is and they blaming vulaqi.