[File Photo]

SODELPA Party Leader Sitiveni Rabuka insists that it is time for his position to be advertised.

This comes amid confirmation by the Registrar of Political Parties that the positions of Party Leader and those of the acting president and 2 vice president lapsed on the 30th of June.

The Fijian Elections Office says that SODELPA is now in a constitutional crisis.

Rabuka says that in 2019 the SODELPA management board agreed that he should continue as Party Leader even though a losing party leader isn’t allowed by the party constitution to continue.

“In my case I did not only allow the constitution to play out, I also wrote a resignation letter which was held and had not been approved.”

Rabuka stressed that SODELPA should now advertise the position of party leader.

“And if things had gone on normally, we didn’t have a court case to go through etcetera, etcetera then our Annual General Meeting the proper one for our next Party Leader to be appointed would have happened prior to the 30th of June.”

However, General Secretary Emele Duituturaga says she needs more consultation and legal advice to determine whether the casual extension of the acting president and two vice presidents are in line with the party constitution despite not being able to hold a party AGM by the cutoff date of 30th June.

“What is encouraging shall I say is the last line which actually says that the registrar of political parties is an independent office and leaves it to SODELPA to handle this matter appropriately.”

Meanwhile, SODELPA has issued a 21 day notice to its members of its Special General Meeting scheduled to be held on the 25th of this month.