FijiFirst General Secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum (from left), NFP leader, Biman Prasad.

Just over a couple of weeks after getting caught out in parliament for denying he ever wanted civil servants’ pay and FNPF cuts, the National Federation Party leader has been called out by FijiFirst for lying once again—this time outside of parliament.

During the recent parliamentary session, NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad made wild allegations that a FijiFirst MP had drunkenly claimed in a hotel that the last elections were rigged and that the next election would be won by FijiFirst again under the same circumstances.

Prasad went on to promise to reveal the name of the alleged FijiFirst MP later in the week.

However, in a strange and bizarre turnabout, Prasad is now denying the parliamentary episode more than two weeks after making the allegation, despite clear video evidence that shows otherwise.

It was the first day of the last parliamentary session on Monday, August 29th, that an agitated NFP leader, Biman Prasad, hurled yet another wild allegation about a FijiFirst MP.

“I don’t want to name the member but he was drunk somewhere in one of the hotels and he said to his friends we will win again like we won the last time because we rigged it. We are going to rig it again. This is what a government member is telling his friends. This is not a story.”

Moments after being goaded by government members to reveal the name of the alleged offending FijiFirst MP, Prasad confidently promised to reveal the name in parliament later in the week.

“I will name when we debate this bill, don’t worry, but Mr. Speaker I have a name, I have a name, I have a name.”

But Prasad failed to reveal any names in Parliament, nor did he instruct his fellow party members to do so on his behalf when he later travelled overseas. And to date, he is yet to keep his promise despite being repeatedly asked by FijiFirst General Secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to keep his word.

However, in an inexplicable twist, Prasad is now brazenly denying the promise he made to the Fijian Parliament while outlandishly ignoring the video evidence of him promising to reveal the name of the FijiFirst MP.

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum claimed or also claims that I made accusation about vote rigging in 2018. He has challenged me to give details. Again he got it wrong, he really got it wrong. Sometimes I wonder if he is in parliament listening to what the Opposition or what people like us are saying. He must be sometimes dreaming in Parliament, if his misquoting and I quote from what I said in Parliament. It is not me who talked about vote rigging, it is one of his party member, one of his MP, of cause I will not tell him which MP said it.”

Sayed-Khaiyum says Prasad is a man whose words cannot be trusted, as evident in what he promised Parliament.

“The point is how can the Fijian public trust him now? People should not trust him, because he has made these kinds of allegations, and misrepresentations, in fact, treated the Fijian electorate as some sort of group of dumb people and going back on his word. I mean, there is absolutely no integrity there, in terms of what he says one day and says the other day and I urged the Fijian public to treat this leader of NFP in that manner. He absolutely has no credibility anymore.”

With the general elections due before the end of this year, the desperate race for votes is likely to result in similar misleading and illogical claims by a number of like-minded politicians.