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Fiji’s interim Attorney-General said the Court of Appeal had not recognised that its decision today for the President to appoint a caretaker Prime Minister on the way back to general elections would create a vacuum in the day-to-day running of the country.
“There is a vacuum, because the court has not said that (ousted prime minister Laisenia) Qarase comes back as Prime Minister, the court has simply said that the President has to appoint a caretaker Prime Minister, a third party,” Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said outside court.
“So there is a vacuum. That’s what we tried to impress upon the court that there is a vacuum, the State of Fiji needs to continue, people need to catch the bus, people are coming to this country, orders need to be signed, and there are various machinations of the country that is at stake. Unfortunately the court has not recognised this.”
Sayed-Khaiyum said the government would be studying the court’s decision.
“It is a fairly complex manner in which they have arrived to the decision. We obviously need time to study it, we have put the court on notice that we will be appealing the decision but you’ve also seen the second deck of orders that the discretion is up to the President in the appointment of a caretaker Prime Minister. We obviously will be appealing the ruling.”
When asked if the interim government would be vacating office, he said: “We will have to see, we are filing an appeal, we will have to see our avenues of getting a stay on the order.”
The Court of Appeal granted Solicitor-General Christopher Pryde leave to appeal its decision, moments after the decision was handed down.
