17 Jan 2008

Fiji's NFP undecided over new council

4:25 pm on 17 January 2008

One of the members who declined the invitation to the inaugural meeting of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji says his party is open to further discussion with the interim government.

The first meeting of the Council took place last night with about 30 members rather than the full quota of over 40 attending.

One of the Council's decisions was to amend the title of the controversial People's Charter to include the word peace.

It will now be called the People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress.

The President of the National Federation Party, Raman Pratap Singh, says his 40,000 or so members will decide on whether to continue their stand at a meeting next month.

But he believes that until the Council becomes truly representative, the NFP will be staying away.

"At the moment we feel that it is not fully representative of the people of Fiji, that's the proposed members of the charter, that is one of the main reasons that we decided that we are not going to the committee."

Raman Pratap Singh