Ofa Swann

Ofa Swann is a Fijian politician. Originally from Vanua Balavu in the Lau archipelago, she was elected to represent the Suva City Open Constituency in the House of Representatives in 1999 as a candidate of the United General Party (now the United People's Party), garnering 31.9 % of the vote on the first count, and 56.2 % after votes for minor candidates had been redistributed under Fiji's transferable voting system. She retained the seat in 2001 as a candidate of the newly-formed New Labour Unity Party (NLUP); this time the electorate was much more fractured and she polled only 12.5 % of first-preference votes, but finished with 59.8 % after the final distribution of preferences.

Swann is noted for remaining loyal to the NLUP after Kenneth Zinck, the only other NLUP candidate elected to Parliament, defied orders from the party and joined the Cabinet as Minister of Labour. Swann remained on the Opposition benches, where she gained a reputation as a strong debater.

Policies and opinions

Swann is regarded as a strong Fijian nationalist, but in a national rather than a racial sense. She has called for the British Union Jack to be removed from the Fijian flag, and for the observance of Queen's Birthday to be discontinued as a national holiday. She has also called for the removal of the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II from Fiji's currency. Despite having been a republic since 1987, Fiji has kept, for cultural and historical reasons, many of the trappings of its old connection to the British Monarchy. "These are just some of the things that disturb me considering our drive to take ownership of our country and make a statement about us being Fiji Islanders," she said on 8 August 2005. It was time, she considered, to make a change.

In her dealings with other politicians, Swann is regarded as more moderate than many others, and has been known to defend her rivals against unfair attacks. On 23 September 2005, she defended Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase against claims of racism. She said that such allegations were made by misinformed people, and that an analysis of government loans handed out to students, many of them Indo-Fijian, proved that he was not a racist.

2006 election

See main article: Fiji election of 2006

On 11 February 2006, the Fiji Sun quoted Swann as saying that as the NLUP had been deregistered, she was considering joining another party or contesting the upcoming election as an independent candidate. She would announce a final decision after a round of meetings with her constituents starting in March, she said. She reiterated on 23 February that she was still pondering her choices; she would confer with NLUP colleague Kenneth Zinck and others before making a final decision, Fiji Live quoted her as saying. One option was to join the ruling United Fiji Party (SDL), but was unsure whether she qualified as a candidate under the SDL constitution. On 8 March, she announced that she had finally decided to run as an independent.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.