Fiji’s prime minister and the leader of the soon-to-be-registered FijiFirst Party has boasted to Fiji media that 18 chiefs have endorsed his party, along with 40,000 officially signed-up supporters.

Anti-regime blog Coup4.5 says the regime leader’s efforts to buoy support comes during a disastrous week for FijiFirst, thanks to running-mate and party president, Dr Jiko Tuveni’s “footh-in-mouth” outburst about women and rape.

The minister for women, Dr Luveni, has caused an outcry after being quoted in the Fiji Sun as saying young girls and women needed to be “responsible” around the opposite sex.

“We women have rights but we would not want to get into trouble by exposing ourselves and arousing the opposite sex,’ she said.

“As long as we are responsible we would be able to help ourselves because situations can get out of control if we are among a group of guys in isolated areas.”

Luveni has been accused of harking back to the dark ages and condoning rapists – with the Fiji Womens Rights Movement urging people to complain to Bainimarama for Luveni to resign.

The regime stalwart is Bainimarama’s second high ranking official to muck up in a fortnight.

Just over a week ago, FijiFirst vice-president, Bijai Prasad, was forced to resign after he acknowledged being convicted of theft as a servant in 1984.

Prasad departed the party after being exposed for stealing $20,000 while working as a movement controller at Air Services Ltd at Namaka.

The crime was committed more than 30 years ago but he served a year of his three-year sentence which was enough to bring the former Fiji Labour Party politician down very quickly.

In a statement, the executive director of the Fiji Womens Rights Movement, Virisila Buadromo, says Dr Luveni’s comments “shamed” and “further violated” victimised women instead of denouncing rapists.

Luveni insisted: “I have never, nor has the Bainimarama government ever said that victims of rape are to be blamed. Rape is a despicable act and we must all condemn it.”

While Levini is talking fast to minimise the fallout over her verbal slip-up, Bainimarama is putting it about that the chiefs of Fiji are unanimously behind him and his party.

Sodelpa leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa, has used the regime leader’s claim against him by questioning why he’s named the chiefs individually – saying it’s ‘un-Fijian’.

The opposition grouping, the United Front for Democracy (UFDF) has also challenged reports FijiFirst is well ahead in popularity as reported in the Fiji Sun newspaper’s opinion polls, if you go by the number of members the party has signed up – pointing out that the four opposition parties had just 28 days to collect 30, 267 signatures – while Bainimarama had 14 months.

“This as we all saw, was accompanied by a massive publicity and promotional campaign. There was lavish use of government resources and the handing out of millions of dollars in development funds and strategically planned government road shows to secure support for the proposed Fiji First,” the UFDF counters.

A May 10 Fiji Sun poll had Bainimarama as preferred prime minister at 83 per cent and all other leaders collectively at 17 per cent.

It also had the yet-to-be registered Fiji First as the preferred political party with 64 per cent, with other parties on 23 per cent.

UFDF says with such high support in terms of percentage, Bainimarama should have registered 147,774 signatures.

The National Federation Party has meanwhile criticised the decision to recruit members of the public as presiding officers for the election – saying it is a waste of resources.

Party leader, Biman Prasad, says the polling booths were previously manned by civil servants who thanks to the regime rules have now been banned from such roles.

Prasad says one decreed criteria for those wishing to work at the polling stations is that they are politically neutral.

Prasad questions how the minister of elections will be able to find 14,000 ‘neutral’ presiding officers, considering the 80,000 people who have signed up to political parties.