Mosese Bulitavu | |
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Mosese Drecala Bulitavu is a Fijian politician and Member of the Parliament of Fiji. He is the current Minister for Environment & Climate Change.
In October 2011 Bulitavu was charged with sedition for graffiting billboards with anti-government slogans. [1] [2] In March 2018 Bulitavu was convicted, [3] and subsequently sentenced to more than two years' jail. [4] The conviction was overturned on appeal, and a retrial ordered in August 2018. [5] The prosecution was discontinued in 2019. [6]
Bulitavu ran in the 2014 elections as a SODELPA candidate, winning 6276 votes, making him the 4th highest-polling SODELPA candidate. [7] He was re-elected in the 2018 election, [8] winning 5342 votes. [9]
On 4 July 2019, Bulitavu made racist statements on his Facebook page that stabbing and killing was something the iTaukei community learned from the 'vulagi', those who were brought in from India. [10] Bulitavu was subsequently condemned by Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama [11] and by other members of the SODELPA party, [12] and was subsequently questioned by police over allegations of hate speech. [13] [14]
In August 2021, SODELPA sought to have Bulitavu's seat declared vacant for supporting the government budget and the iTaukei Land Trust Act (Bill No. 17). [15] [16] The Court of Disputed Returns dismissed the party's case. [17]
In June 2022, Bulitavu announced that he might leave SODELPA for the 2022 general election. [18] SODELPA general secretary Lenaitasi Duru confirmed in October 2022 that Bulitavu was still a SODELPA member, and that he had unsuccessfully sought the party's nomination. [19] On 30 October, Bulitavu was named as part of the FijiFirst candidate list. [20] He won reelection with 631 votes, [9] ranking 25th out of FijiFirst's 26 elected seats. [21] FijiFirst went into opposition after the opposition parties, including SODELPA, formed a coalition government. [22] Following the collapse and deregistration of FijiFirst he remained in parliament as an independent, but said that he would support the government of Sitiveni Rabuka. [23] On 10 January 2025, he was sworn as Minister of Environment & Climate Change under Rabuka's government. [24]