One of the political commentators said that it seemed like the test that was given to Colonel Jone Baleidrokadroka by the Commodore was to guess the location of the mandate and obviously he failed miserably because which soul on all the 333 islands would have ever in their wildest imagination thought that Laisenia Qarase has the mandate.

In a separate report, the Leader of the Opposition, Mahendra Chaudary in a press conference held this afternoon cleared the air on the mandate issue. “We have the original mandate and its kept in a very safe place.” “Its 100% authentic and I am sure that the mandate the Prime Minister has is a fake one.” Mr. Chaudary claimed. He also told the reporters that Mr. Qarase had most probably been duped by one of those fake Tabua sellers and requested the Police Commissioner to investigate the matter. “My guess is that the NFP also has a fake mandate.” Mr. Chaudary added.

In other news, the Ministry of Health, in a statement released today, acknowledged for the first time that there is an outbreak of ‘Pass-the-Buck' syndrome.