Biman Prasad (born 1961 or 1962)[1] is a Fijian politician and economist who has served as the leader of the National Federation Party since 2014, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance since 2022.[2]
He married Rajni Chand in 1986. They have two children.[5]
Academic career
Prasad became a lecturer at the University of the South Pacific in 1986.[6] He was President of the USP staff Association from 1999 - 2006, head of the School of Economics from 2003 to 2007, and Professor of Economics and Dean of the faculty of Business and Economics from 2007 to 2011.[3] He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Fijian Studies and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pacific Studies.[3] Professor Prasad has published several books and journal articles. He has done consultancy work for many regional and international agencies and governments in the South Pacific region.
Prasad stood as a candidate for the National Federation Party in the 1999 election, but was unsuccessful.[3] In 2001, he was nominated as President of the party, but declined.[3]
In March 2014 Prasad was elected as leader of the NFP.[7] He competed in the 2014 election, winning 8,097 votes, the fourth highest-ranked candidate.[8] His party received 5.2 per cent of the popular vote and 3 of the 50 parliamentary seats. Prasad subsequently became the Shadow Minister for Finance, Planning and National Statistics and Chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.[9] His efforts to use the Public Accounts Committee to scrutinise the government's accounts resulted initially in a government boycott,[10] and in 2016 in his removal as chair.[11] In 2015 he led an unsuccessful attempt to revoke the controversial media decree, which limited freedom of the press.[12][13] He also called for the government to lift its entry ban on Fijian historian Brij Lal, who had been forced into exile in Australia.[14] In September 2016 he was one of a group of opposition MPs arrested after attending an NGO meeting to discuss the military-imposed constitution.[15] He was released after spending a weekend in jail,[16] and no charges were laid.[17] After his release he criticised the government's claims that Fiji had returned to democracy.[18]
He was re-elected at the 2018 elections,[19] winning 12,137 votes. In October 2019 he called for the 2013 Constitution of Fiji to be reviewed, as it has been imposed on Fiji by the military regime.[20] He contrasted this with the 1997 Constitution of Fiji, which had been developed by a process of public consultation.[20] In October 2020 he was investigated by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption over donations made to the NFP.[21] He subsequently sued supervisor of elections Mohammed Saneem for defamation over the allegations.[22] On 25 July 2021 Prasad was arrested by Fijian police after criticising government moves to amend land legislation.[23]
In the leadup to the 2022 election he was arrested by police on charges of "indecently insulting or annoying a person".[24] The director of public prosecutions subsequently refused to lay charges,[25] and criticised police for not investigating the alleged incident properly.[26] It was subsequently revealed that Prasad had been taking legal action against the accuser's husband.[27]
He was re-elected in the 2022 election[28] with 11355 votes.[29] On 24 December 2022 he was appointed a Deputy Prime Minister (one of three) and Minister for Finance, Strategic Planning, National Developments, and Statistics in the coalition government of Sitiveni Rabuka.[30] One of his first actions as Minister was to reinstate funding for the University of the South Pacific, reversing the Bainimarama regime's funding freeze.[31]
