If the 16 FijiFirst members of Parliament lose their seats, it will be a big blow to the party, says Fijian academic Professor Steven Ratuva.

“This has deep implications in terms of the leading heavyweights of FF disappearing together at the same time,” said Prof Ratuva.

“These were diehard loyal Bainimarama supporters since 2006 and it will be a big blow to their political ideals and future expectations.”

He said FFP would lose firepower and they might just manage to survive until the 2026 elections.

“Whether they will survive the election is another question. All the indicators of electoral success are against them at the moment.

“But the same goes for other political parties because, given the tsunami of anger and discontentment across the country, the results will be interesting indeed.

“A snap election cannot be ruled out to clean up the current political mess and do a new political reset but again there’s no guarantee that things will be better.”