Tomasi Vuetilovoni
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Tomasi Vuetilovoni, commonly known as Tom Vuetilovoni, is a Fijian politician, who is the current Minister for Tourism and Transport, posts which he assumed following the parliametnary election held on 6-13 May 2006. Previously, he served as Minister for Commerce, Business Development, and Investment from July 2000, when he joined the interim government that was formed in the wake of the failed Fiji coup of 2000. In the election held to restore democracy in September 2001, Vuetilovoni won the Ra Fijian Communal constituency for the United Fiji Party (SDL), and retained his Cabinet post subsequently.
Vuetilovoni found himself the subject of some controversy in mid-2005, when it was revealed that he held the Chairmanship of the Ra Provincial Council, in addition to his cabinet office. Fellow-Cabinet Minister Ro Teimumu Kepa was similarly found to be chairing the Rewa Provincial Council. Citing a constitutional ban on parliamentarians holding Provincial office simultaneously, Opposition Leader Mahendra Chaudhry demanded the removal of the two ministers form Parliament. Despite their resignations from their respective Provincial Council Chairmanships (Vuetilovoni did not seek reappointment in Ra in June, and Kepa resigned her Rewa Chairmanship in August), Chaudhry has persisted with this demand, and on 13 December 2005, announced that he was taking legal action against them, and also against Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, for failing to expel them.
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