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Nationalist Vanua Tako Lavo Party


The Nationalist Vanua Tako Lavo Party (NVTLP) was a Fijian political party which champions Fijian ethnic nationalism. It was led by Iliesa Duvuloco, while Viliame Savu served as the party's President.

The party was founded in the late 1990s by a merger of Sakeasi Butadroka's Fijian Nationalist Party and Iliesa Duvuloco's Vanua Tako Lavo Party. Both leaders strongly opposed the adoption of the present constitution, which they publicly burnt when Parliament passed it. The party campaigned on a platform of "Fiji for the Fijians and that their rights at all times should be preserved," as Butadroka put it.

In April 2006, party secretary Viliame Savu announced that the NVTLP was dropping its demand for the expulsion of ethnic Indians who were born in Fiji. "We no longer share that view now because if you Indian or European born here, you will be still a Fiji citizen," he told the Fiji Sun. The party would continue to fight for indigenous rights, however, and would continue to campaign for Christianity to be established as the official religion of Fiji.

A number of senior figures from the NVTLP, including Duvuloco and the party executive, Samuela Konataci, have been convicted of offenses related to the Fiji coup of 2000 and have served prison sentences. On 21 September 2005, Maciu Navakasuasua, a former NVTLP stalwart who was imprisoned for three years for his role in the coup, went public with allegations that the coup was actually planned by the NVTLP and that George Speight, who fronted the rebellion, was only a spokesman who usurped its leadership. Duvuloco refused to comment on the allegations, saying that he thought the country should look forward rather than backward. However, the party President, Viliame Savu, supported Navakasuasua's version of events, saying that he was admitting the party's role in the coup in order to clear his conscience.


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