Sitiveni Rabuka (74) has been sworn in as the new prime minister of the Fiji Islands. The former putschist leader and ex-prime minister had previously received 28 votes in a close parliamentary election on Saturday. The previous incumbent, Frank Voreqe Bainimarama (68), received 27 votes.
Bainimarama led the government for 16 years after he seized power in a coup in 2006 as a former military chief. In 2014 he became the democratically elected prime minister.
Rabuka’s election ends a 10-day period of uncertainty in the island nation. In the parliamentary elections on December 14, neither party had won a majority of seats. However, the Social Democratic Liberal Party, which won three seats, announced on Tuesday that it would form a coalition with Rabuka’s People’s Alliance Party. They thus achieved the majority of at least 28 seats required for a government.
Rabuka first became prime minister in 1987 after two coups d’état and remained in office with interruptions until 1999.
The Pacific state has more than 300 islands and around 900,000 inhabitants. Fiji has been independent from Great Britain since 1970.
