Efforts to unite the ethnic Fijian parties were in part a response to their electoral defeat in 1999, when they had been split, enabling the Indian-backed FLP to win a landslide victory.
The formation of a Grand Coalition Initiative Group (GCIG) was announced on 30 July 2005 by Tomasi Vakatora, a former Cabinet Minister and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
[6] SDL general secretary Jale Baba concurred, saying that his party had non-indigenous members, including Indo-Fijians, and that joining an ethnic Fijian coalition was not a denial of multiracialism.
The Presidents and officials of all participating parties met again in the Suva suburb of Nabua on 13 August, and signed a Memorandum of Agreement, confirming that the coalition was a reality.
The Fiji Village news service reported the next day, as a meeting to discuss the dispute was getting underway, that Sivo had told Cakobau that he had done nothing for the party and could "walk out" any time he chose.
The CAMV President maintained, however, that the party's six-member parliamentary caucus and the executives were behind him, and the Fijivillage news service reported on 9 August that plans were underway to remove Sivo from his position.
National Alliance Party leader Ratu Epeli Ganilau said that in agreeing to the all-indigenous coalition, the ruling SDL had demonstrated that its purported commitment to multiracialism was meaningless.
[citation needed] National Federation Party General Secretary Pramod Rae predicted that internal differences in the coalition would cause it to be short-lived.
[11] University of the South Pacific (USP) Vice-Chancellor Anthony Tarr was invited as a guest speaker at the launch event, a move criticized by the opposition Fiji Labour Party (FLP).
[12] Koroi stated, "Those of us who are continually fighting a battle to make Fiji truly multi-racial find it offensive that an expatriate holding such a responsible office in our country, should be participating in a move that clearly espouses racial segregation.
[12] SVT General Secretary Ema Druavesi was quoted in Fiji Village on 10 March as saying that the coalition was uniting indigenous Fijians for the purpose of being able to work with others, and that the group needed an outsider to show them the way forward.
[3] The controversy over Anthony Tarr's decision to participate as a speaker at the Grand Coalition for Fiji launch was later identified as a contributing factor to his resignation as vice chancellor at USP.