Mahendra Chaudhry

Mahendra Pal Chaudhry ( born September 2, 1942 in Tavua, Ba Province, Western Division ) is a Fijian politician of the Fiji Labour Party.

Life

Chaudhry was in 1985 of the founding members of the Fiji Labour Party and was subsequently 1985-1994 Deputy Secretary General of the party. In 1987 he was first elected to the House of Representatives and appointed shortly afterwards in April 1987 as an Economics and Finance in the government of Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra. However, he lost these offices already a month later, after Bavadra was overthrown on 14 May 1987 by a led by Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka coup.

After the death of Bavadra on 3 November 1989, he was elected his successor as Chairman of the Fiji Labour Party and for this 1992 again in the House of Representatives. He is representing the constituency since 1999 Ba Open.

On 19 May 1999 he succeeded Rabuka as Prime Minister and was the first Prime Minister of Fiji with Indian ethnicity, what had become possible only through the new constitution adopted in 1997. Previous coalition negotiations with the Fiji People's Party (FPP ) of Ratu Inoke Kubuabola were, however, failed. His most important domestic policy goal was to end the tensions between the various ethnic groups.

Exactly one year after taking office, he was taken on 19 May 2000 together with his cabinet by rebels led by businessman George Speight and with the support of conservative forces hostage. Frank Bainimarama, head of the armed forces, said after the coup President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara deposed and himself as the new ruler of the island nation. Although the intervention of the military ended the coup, but at the same time also meant the temporary end of the short period of political development and equality of the Indo- Fijians. On 4 July 2000 Laisenia Qarase Senator took over as interim prime minister and held this position until March 14, 2001 although Chaudhry had previously been released on 13 June 2000.

Last Chaudhry was from 2007 to August 2008 in the interim government of Frank Bainimarama again Minister of Finance. Subsequently, he was briefly arrested opposition leaders in the House and in October 2010 for violating the military emergency law and illegal meetings with critical sugar planters. Previously, he expressed several times his frustration with the existing emergency laws and the resulting political situation.