not interfere with the due process of law. On 29 November 2004, however, Attorney General Qoriniasi Bale announced that the government had decided to parole Seniloli on health grounds, in return for his resignation. A similar scenario unfolded in the trial of Ratu Lalabalavu, the party leader, and Senator Ratu Josefa Dimuri, also a party member. On 3 April 2005, Lalabalavu and Dimuri were convicted of unlawful assembly for their role aiding and abetting the 2000 coup by visiting rebels at the Sukanaivalu Barracks on 4 July that year, and were sentenced to eight months' imprisonment. They were released on parole after serving just eleven days of their sentences. Opposition politicians charged that the release of Seniloli, Lalabalavu, and Dimuri was for political reasons, as the six votes of the Conservative Alliance are needed to maintain the government's parliamentary majority. The military also criticized their release. This led to a series of exchanged in April 2005, with the Conservative Alliance accusing the military of meddling in politics, and the military in turn charging that Alliance politicians included many who had "created havoc" in the 2000 coup. In a strongly worded statement on 25 April 2005, army spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni declared, "The RFMF would like to remind the CAMV that they were the very people who created the havoc from which the country is still trying to recover." Trials of persons implicated in the 2000 coup, many of them Conservative Alliance members, are continuing. Controversies, 2005-2006 A power struggle between the President and General Secretary of the party took place in September 2005. On 30 July 2005, Cakobau signed an agreement with four other parties to establish an electoral coalition of parties supported mostly by indigenous Fijians to contest the general election scheduled for 2006. Sivo opposed the decision, and said that Cakobau had acted without proper authority. Each subsequently called on the other to resign, and on 9 August, Cakobau said that he expected Sivo to be replaced by his predecessor, Ratu Josefa Dimuri. Sivo countered that he had no intention of relinquishing his position, and said that he could be only removed if the party judged him unfit for the post. He reiterated on 16 September that he would not stand aside for Dimuri. Responding to a letter that Cakobau had sent to Dimuri reinstating him, Sivo said that Cakobau had no such powers. He accused him of