Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama had two high powered meetings at his residence this morning.
One meeting was held with Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and following that Commodore Bainimarama met with the Military Council members.
Members of the military council who were seen going to the meeting at Bainimarama's residence were Colonel Mohammed Aziz, Colonel Pita Driti, Colonel Apakuki Kurusiga and Commander Viliame Naupoto and Commodore Esala Teleni.
Interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was also at the meeting.
We now cross over to Interim Prime Minister Commodore Bainimarama who is currently at his home.
Commodore Bainimarama, how did your meeting go with Mr Chaudhry? There is speculation that you had asked him to resign last night. Did you ask him to resign last night?
"I understand that the interest that has been created is that Mr. Chaudhry has been asked to resign. What I want to say is: he'll have to seek endorsement from Helen Clark and Rabuka who have said that Mr. Chaudhry is going to be the next Prime Minister. So I don't know how we can get him to resign when these two have said that he will be the next Prime Minister. But the meeting we had this morning is really to inform him of the actions that were taken by me last night with regards to the strike or the shut-down of the bottling companies. I had asked him to come home because I'm not well and I thought my place would be a better place to call a meeting instead of an air-conditioned office. We talked about what happened last night and I also told him he needs to put in a Cabinet paper for tomorrow. Tomorrow's is the emergency cabinet meeting to endorse the actions that were taken last night."
So did you ask Mr Chaudhry to resign as speculated by some media outlets?
"Well, there's no truth in that matter. The talks of resignation probably came out of the fact that he wasn't around last night during the talks with the bottling companies but as I explained this morning, we wanted somebody from the outside with a different outlook on the problem. We've used the Attorney General in the past in that manner - the latest being the bust strike - and we thought we'd use him again last night.We didn't really want Mr Chaudhry in. We just wanted to tell him last night what we're going to do. And that was probably where the speculation came from because he did not attend that meeting."
Commodore Bainimarama, you also met with the military council. What was that about?
"As I've said the Attorney General was the one who went last night to the meeting with two of the members of the military council. And they were here this morning. We were all together so they could brief us on what transpired last night and which came out in the papers this morning. And there were some other issues that we sat and discussed none of which had to do with the resignation of Mr. Chaudhry. But as i've said: I don't know why there have been talks of the resignation of Mr Chaudhry when Helen Clark wants him to be the next Prime Minister."
Meanwhile Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry left his home this morning in his private vehicle and went straight to the Home Affairs Ministry office at Government Buildings.
He then went to the Finance Ministry office before heading off to another meeting.
We have received confirmation that Chaudhry was not in the meeting with the military council at Bainimarama's residence.
In an interview with Fijivillage this morning, Commodore Bainimarama said he had to step in and he told Interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and members of the military council to meet with the water bottling companies last night after they ceased their operations until further notice.
When Fijivillage questioned Bainimarama whether he spoke to Chaudhry before repealing the duty on bottled water proposed by the Interim Finance Minister, Bainimarama confirmed that he did not speak to Chaudhry.
Stay with us for developments.
