In the recently held Fiji election, Nationalist leader Laisenia Qarase was sworn in by the President on Thursday for a second time as the Prime Minister of the racially divided South Pacific nation following his narrow election win over an ethnic Indian rival.
The opposition Fiji Labor Party (FLP), led by former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, a PIO who was ousted in a 2000 coup by armed Fijian nationalists, won 31 seats in the tightly contested election. Labor has the support of two lawmakers from the allied United Peoples' Party. FLP has decided to join the new government under Prime Minister Qarase. According to the agreement, FLP will have nine ministers in the new cabinet.
Indo-Fijians comprise 44 per cent of Fiji's total population of around 900,000.
