The People’s Alliance Party (PAP) was formed because SODELPA failed to provide the leadership and unity needed to bring about political change in Fiji, says Minister Filimoni Vosarogo.
In a social media post responding to SODELPA general secretary Levi Vere, Mr Vosarogo said PAP had to be established to achieve what SODELPA had been unable to deliver.
“In fact, PAP was formed because SODELPA had failed to provide the leadership and unity needed to bring about political change,” Mr Vosarogo said.
“We had to build a new political party to achieve what SODELPA had been unable to deliver.”
Mr Vosarogo also criticised Mr Vere over his recent statements attacking PAP, accusing him of overlooking SODELPA’s own political decisions following the 2022 General Election.
“In his latest rant filled with mistruths and exaggerations, SODELPA General Secretary Levi Vere seems to have forgotten that almost half of his party’s Management Board voted to return Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to power following the 2022 General Election.”
He said 14 of SODELPA’s 30 Management Board members voted to form a coalition with FijiFirst, while 16 supported a coalition with PAP and the National Federation Party (NFP).
“That means SODELPA came within just two votes of returning Fiji to the dictators we worked so hard to defeat,” Mr Vosarogo claimed.
He defended the political record of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the founding members of PAP, saying they had spent years opposing FijiFirst.
“The Honourable Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and many of those who founded PAP have spent much of their political lives standing against FijiFirst and fighting for a return to democratic government.”
Mr Vosarogo’s comments follow a series of public exchanges between PAP and SODELPA over political loyalty, coalition commitments and proposed constitutional reforms.
Mr Vere had earlier accused PAP of attempting to lecture SODELPA on loyalty despite the party’s sacrifices during the Bainimarama administration.
He maintained that SODELPA had stood against the former government since 2014 and declared that its members were not “ship jumpers”.
The latest exchange highlights continuing political differences between the two coalition partners as debate over the Constitution Amendment Bill intensifies.
