Jokapeci Koroi

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Jokapeci Talei Koroi is a Fijian politician. She is currently the President of the Fiji Labour Party and a Senator. She was appointed to the Senate in 2002 as one of 8 nominees of the Leader of the Opposition, Mahendra Chaudhry.

Koroi has been an outspoken opponent of the government's controversial Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill, which aims to establish a Commission with the power to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the civilian coup that deposed the elected government of Mahendra Chaudhry in May 2000. She has also called for constitutional amendments to abolish communal voting and make all seats in the House of Representatives electable by universal suffrage, rather than on closed ethnic rolls as 46 of the 71 seats currently are. This would, she said on 30 August 2005, help to erase the political faultline between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians, which has defined Fijian politics for a generation.

[edit] 2006 crisis

• See main article: Fiji crisis of 2005-2006.

On 11 January 2006, amid escalating tensions between the government and the Military, Koroi told Fiji Television's One National News that in the event of the Military staging a coup, the FLP would support it. Home Affairs Minister Vosanibola reported her comments to the police, and called for her to be required to answer to charges of incitement and of threatening public order. Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase likewise condemned her remarks, along with her subsequent allegations implicating the Prime Minister and two senior civil servants in an alleged attempted mutiny on 12 January, a day which saw unusual deployments of troops and naval vessels, followed by an announcement on the 13th that Lieutenant Colonel Jone Baledrokadroka, the Acting Land Force Commander, had been dismissed for insubordination. Koroi issued a statement claiming that Baledrokadroka had attempted a mutiny at the behest of Prime Minister Qarase, Home Affairs Minister Josefa Vosanibola, and his department's Chief Executive Officer, Lesi Korovavala.

Qarase announced on 15 January, and reiterated on the 19th, that he had filed charges against her for what he called false, malicious, and defamatory allegations. On 20 January, Police spokeswoman Sylvia Low told the Fiji Times that the police had received a complaint from Home Affairs Minister Josefa Vosanibola concerning her support for a coup. Another complaint had been received from Korovavala concerning her allegations about him, Low said.

The Fiji Sun quoted Regional Development Minister Ted Young on 21 February as saying that Koroi's endorsement of a possible coup had resulted in a major downturn in the tourism industry.