Fiji reinstates military chief as PM

The president of Fiji has reappointed the country's military chief as prime minister, a day after he repealed the constitution.

Fiji's president Ratu Josefa Iloilo has reappointed military chief Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama as interim prime minister a day after he set off fresh turmoil by repealing the constitution. All nine members of Mr Bainimarama's former interim cabinet were also given their posts back, returning political power to the same people whose interim administration was declared invalid by Fiji's Court of Appeal two days ago.

Fiji has been plunged into a new political crisis since Thursday when the court declared that Mr Bainimarama's government had been illegally appointed by Iloilo following the December 2006 military coup. Mr Iloilo responded a day later by repealing the constitution, dismissing the judiciary and setting a September 2014 deadline for elections to restore democracy. The president also introduced emergency regulations yesterday, which include censorship of the South Pacific nation's media, with government officials being sent into newsrooms to vet political stories.

The infirm 88-year-old Mr Iloilo has been seen as being under the influence of Mr Bainimarama since before the 2006 coup. He then appointed the military chief as interim prime minister after the elected government of prime minister Laisenia Qarase was removed at gunpoint in the country's fourth coup in two decades. But Mr Bainimarama denied yesterday he had influenced Mr Iloilo's response to the court ruling.

* AFP