Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka confirms the removal from cabinet of Lynda Tabuya was his call however the removal from the People’s Alliance is the party’s call.
Rabuka revealed this to fijivillage News after we were informed that there are moves afoot to expel Tabuya from the party which would also mean that she would lose her parliamentary seat.
The Fijian Constitution states that the seat of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant if the member is expelled from the political party for which he or she was a candidate at the time he or she was elected to Parliament and the expulsion was in accordance with the rules of the political party relating to party discipline; and the expulsion did not relate to any action taken by the member in his or her capacity as a member of a committee of Parliament.
The seat of the Member of Parliament becomes vacant only upon receipt by the Speaker of a written notification signed by the leader and the secretary of the political party notifying the Speaker that the member has been expelled from the political party.
When asked by fijivillage News, Rabuka says the Party National Legal and Disciplinary Sub Committee has 21 days to respond to a report he received from a Party Member on Christmas Day.
He confirms he received an email which prompted him to ask Lynda Tabuya for an explanation regarding her nude video online.
He says Tabuya's response was an admission of sorts.
Rabuka says he also received a report from a Party Member, which he forwarded to the General Secretary and Acting Chair of the party's National Legal and Disciplinary Sub Committee to begin investigation.
Rabuka says on his reading Tabuya’s response to him, he decided he had enough information to inform her of his decision to terminate her appointment as Minister, which he has informed the President of.
Tabuya has not answered questions from fijivillage News since Tuesday.
We had asked Tabuya’s ministerial office on what she will do after the circulation of a nude video of her.
Tabuya was on leave however her public relations team was not coming back with a response since 3pm on that day.
They were asking to see the video however we had said that we will not circulate it.
When we eventually reached Tabuya, she said that we had printed that we had already spoken to her.
We have made it clear to Tabuya that this is incorrect as fijivillage News did not say that we had spoken to Tabuya.
Tabuya is saying she has no desire to speak to fijivillage.
We had asked her what she had to say as the nude video would create a major negative effect based on the public office she held of Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection.
