THE FijiFirst party is without a leader following the resignations of Voreqe Bainimarama and founding member Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum confirmed the news yesterday, stating founding member Shailesh Kumar, party president Ratu Joji Satakala and vice-presidents Selai Adimaitoga, and Ravindran Kumaran also handed in their resignations last Friday.
He said acting general-secretary Faiyaz Koya and treasurer Hem Chand only resigned from their position in the party but would still hold their seats in Parliament.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said there were several incidents following the 17 FijiFirst MPs who voted for the emoluments report in Parliament last month which led to the resignations of the members.
He claimed a letter signed by Bainimarama and Mr Koya was sent to the Speaker informing him about the directives of the party which were not followed by the 17 MPs.
However, he claimed on the same evening, the Supervisor of Elections had sent letters to the FijiFirst general-secretary on the deregistration of the party.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum claimed his office, home and Mr Koya’s home as well as the FijiFirst office was searched by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption last week.
He also questioned the investigation by the Fiji Corrections Service to verify where Bainimarama signed the termination letters of the 17 FijiFirst members while being incarcerated.
“In the interest of ensuring that we do not further have this big drama played out, the economy being affected, the rule of law being affected, parliamentary governance being affected, the Constitution in a way being made a mockery of, all these individuals have decided to leave FijiFirst,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
“We also then had the now former leader of the party being questioned as to how or when he signed the letter.
“We find prisoners that are incarcerated, and they come to court, they do sign documents, so what was the point, what was the difference?”
He said such incidents were a political ploy for all 17 members to keep their seats in Parliament.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum added the decision of who the next FijiFirst leader would be in the hands of the Registrar of Political Parties.
