4 parties excluded from political forum
Former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has confirmed to Fijivillage that they received a phone call from the PM's office last night informing them that they would not be allowed to attend the meeting.
NFP General Secretary Pramod Rae said they also received a phone call last night from the interim Prime Minister informing them not to attend the meet as well.
However, Rae said the will go to the meeting venue in Nasese this morning adding they can stop him there at the venue.
UPP's Mick Beddoes could not be reached.
This is after the SDL, NFP and UPP had responded to the interim Prime Minister's letter where he had pre-conditions set for the meet like a commitment to electoral reform, for them not to undermine national efforts to meet economic challenges from the global economic crisis, for them not to work with partisan media outlets and foreign countries to undermine national initiatives and efforts and for them to commit to expediting the political dialogue process with honesty and candour.
The parties were to have agreed to the conditions by four yesterday afternoon and a decision made on their attendance.
It is believed Bainimarama read the parties' responses and then made the decision to exclude them. The parties will issue a joint statement later today.
The meeting is expected to take place at 9.30 this morning.
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