Suva (Fiji) (AFP) - Negotiations to end Fiji's deadlocked general election faltered on Monday, leaving it unclear which former coup leader will take charge of the Pacific archipelago nation.
Neither 16-year incumbent Frank Bainimarama nor his rival Sitiveni Rabuka won a clear majority in Wednesday's election, which was marked by allegations of count discrepancies and calls for military intervention.
Fijians were left waiting after kingmaker Viliame Gavoka and his Social Democratic Liberal Party, or SODELPA, failed to pick between the two frontrunners.
Fiji has been upended by four coups in the past 35 years, and many on the streets of its capital Suva had hoped in vain for a smooth election and quick result.
By the time final results were released on Sunday evening, Bainimarama's Fiji First and Rabuka's coalition were deadlocked at 26 seats each -- two shy of a majority in the 55-seat parliament.
The Social Democrats won three seats and the balance of power, and have been locked in negotiations since.
The party's top brass met at a hall in Suva on Monday, under a heavy police presence.
They had been expected to announce a coalition government."SODELPA to decide today," declared the front page of local tabloid the Fiji Sun.
But party leader Gavoka, a former chairman of the Fiji Rugby Union, later told reporters that an update would be provided on Wednesday.
The complicated process could draw out even longer -- an unwieldy "management board" of some 40 members must reach a majority position before choosing.
'Lost Tribe'
One of the major negotiation sticking points has been Gavoka's push to open a Fijian embassy in Jerusalem.
SODELPA has brashly sought to position itself as the deeply religious party of indigenous Fijians, or iTaukei.
Some iTaukei hold the belief that they are descended from a "biblical lost tribe of Israel", anthropologist Edwin Jones wrote in 2015.
Linked to the arrival of European missionaries, similar beliefs are held in parts of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
Social Democratic supporters waved blue and white flags bearing Hebrew script while party members met, and some cars outside sported "I Stand with Israel" bumper stickers.
Gavoka has also previously suggested he is not in favour of a stronger relationship with China -- a position that would appear to align more closely with Rabuka's stance on the matter.
Bainimarama, the incumbent prime minister who has been close with Beijing, has not spoken publicly since Wednesday's vote, but his officials are working behind the scenes on a deal to form a new government.
Bainimarama toppled the government in a 2006 putsch, while Rabuka is a former prime minister and military commander who led two coups in 1987.
Rabuka, an ex-rugby international nicknamed "Rambo", has predicted a period of "horsetrading" to come.
He stopped short of claiming victory on Sunday, but sounded like a man who had won against the odds.
"For those who follow, the generations to come, they will look back at the election and say that was the turning point in Fiji's journey," he told supporters.
"Together we will discover the heart of this great nation of ours."
