My nominee for appointment to the Office of the President as provided for under our Constitution is Major General Jioji Konousi Konrote.
Major General Konrote is one of Fiji’s most outstanding and decorated military officers. He joined RFMF in 1966 and has had a long, dedicated and distinguished career serving Fiji as a military officer/Commander, an international peacekeeper and a senior civil servant and diplomat.
He has been the only Fijian to be appointed as the Force Commander of UNIFIL and UN Assistant Secretary General.
In addition to his distinguished service in the military, Major General Konrote also served as the Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs and Immigration. He has served as the Fijian High Commissioner to the Commonwealth of Australia and Ambassador Plenipotentiary to Singapore.
In 2006, he was elected as a member of Parliament and served as a Minister for State for Immigration and Ex-Servicemen under the SDL Government.
Major General Konrote has also served in my Government as the Minister for Employment, Labour Relations and Productivity.
Major General Konrote has been awarded with numerous awards and decorations during his illustrious career.
With his more than 41 years of service to Fiji and the Fijian people, Major General Konrote is a paragon of loyalty, courage and devotion to duty in his performance as a military commander, honesty and dedication as a senior civil servant and Minister, and tact and perseverance as a diplomat.
I will be nominating his name officially to the Speaker as provided for under sections 83 and 84 of the Fijian Constitution before the sitting of Parliament on Monday, 12 October.