be made free and compulsory. Parents keeping their children away from school to do errands would be prosecuted, he warned. Textbooks and stationery would also be free, Bole said. The Fiji School Leaving Certificate and the Fiji Seventh Form Examination would be retained, he said, but all other national exams would be abolished, as too many were failing to pass the Fiji Secondary Entrance examination. The Fiji Junior Certificate was similarly of no use, he considered; in the past, it had been used as a qualification to enter some professions such as nursing, teaching, and the police, but it had outlived its usefulness. On 1 September, Ganilau said he wanted candidates for all 71 seats in the House of Representatives to be chosen by the end of 2005. He rejected criticism from former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Fijian Political Party Secretary Ema Druavesi; they and others had said that previous efforts to forge a multiracial electoral alliance had been a failure, and that Ganilau's own political history, including his former leadership of the now-defunct Christian Democratic Alliance, did not give grounds for optimism. Bhagwat Maharaj, President of the Party's Western Division, said on 18 February 2006 that the party intended to contest all seats in the Western Division. A party statement also said that women would be allocated 50 percent of the candidates. Coalition ideas On 30 August 2005, Ganilau declared that his party would not be rushed into making any coalition agreements for the general election scheduled for 2006. He said that the party had held informal talks with the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) and the National Federation Party (NFP), but that the talks were of an exploratory nature and intended to keep channels of communication with other parties open. The possibility of a coalition had not been raised because it was still too early, Ganilau said. On 18 September, however, he said that the National Alliance Party would indeed attempt to negotiate an electoral pact with the FLP and the NFP, as well as with the United Peoples Party. "It is very important to combine forces to combat the 2006 General Elections to have a better Government," Ganilau said. Under Fiji's instant run-off voting system, known locally as the Alternative Ballot, votes for low-polling candidates are transferred to higher-polling candidates, according to a preference ranking specified by the candidates or parties (though voters may customize the ranking).