The Rt. Hon. Mahendra Chaudhry is an Indo-Fijian and the leader of the Fiji Labour Party. Following a historic election in which he defeated the long-time former leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, the former trade union leader became Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister on 19 May 1999, but exactly one year later, on 19 May 2000 he and most of his Cabinet were taken hostage by coup leader George Speight, in the Fiji coup of 2000. Unable to exercise his duties, he and his ministers were sacked by President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara on 27 May; Mara intended to assume emergency powers himself but was himself deposed by the military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama. After 56 days in captivity, Chaudhry was released on 13 July and subsequently embarked on a tour of the world to rally support. He was one of the leading voices raised in opposition to the Qarase government's proposed Reconciliation and Unity Commission, which he said was just a mechanism to grant amnesty to persons guilty of coup-related offences. In January 2007 he was appointed as Minister of Finance, Sugar Reform Public Enterprise and National Planning in the interim Cabinet of Commodore Frank Bainimarama, following another coup. Chaudhry was also co-chair of the task force focusing on economic growth within the National Council for Building a Better Fiji. In 2008, he left the government and became an outspoken critic of it.
The Fiji Labour Party (FLP) is a political party in Fiji. Most of its support is from the Indo-Fijian community, although it is officially multiracial and its first leader was an indigenous Fijian, Dr. Timoci Bavadra. The party has been elected to power twice, with Timoci Bavadra and Mahendra Chaudhry becoming prime minister in 1987 and 1999 respectively. On both occasions, the resulting government was rapidly overthrown by a coup.
Articles about people, places, things, and concepts related to or originating from Fiji, include:
Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, OBE, MSD, OStJ, is best known as the instigator of two military coups that shook Fiji in 1987. He was later democratically elected as Prime Minister of Fiji, serving from 1992 to 1999. He went on to serve as Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs, and later served as Chairman of the Cakaudrove Provincial Council from 2001 to 2008. He was elected to this position on 24 May 2001 and re-elected for another three-year term on 13 April 2005. On 24 June 2016, Rabuka was elected as leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party, succeeding Leader of the Opposition Ro Teimumu Kepa, who publicly disapproved of Rabuka's nomination to replace her. On 26 November 2018, Rabuka was appointed as the leader of the Opposition to Parliament, following the 2018 election defeat. Rabuka was the only nomination for the position and his nomination was moved by Ro Teimumu Kepa and seconded by Biman Prasad.
The National Federation Party is a Fijian political party founded by A.D. Patel in November 1968, as a merger of the Federation Party and the National Democratic Party. Though it claimed to represent all Fiji Islanders, it was supported, in practice, almost exclusively by Indo-Fijians whose ancestors had come to Fiji, mostly as indentured labourers, between 1879 and 1916. However, in the 2018 General elections the party recorded a considerable change in its support base as a consequent of the inclusion of more indigenous Fijian candidates.
Prem Singh is a Fijian politician and a member of the Fijian Parliament. He is a member of the National Federation Party (NFP).
Sir Vijay Raghubar Singh, KBE was an Indo-Fijian lawyer and politician who held Cabinet office in the 1960s and 1970s. Vijay Singh served in Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara's government in a variety of positions, including Attorney-General, and was President of the Indian Alliance, a division of the ruling Alliance Party. He quit the party in 1979 following disagreement with Alliance leadership and later joined the opposition National Federation Party. Vijay Singh was involved in the restructure of the Fiji sugar industry and was a leading member of the Jaycees movement in Fiji.
Municipal elections were held for 11 of Fiji's twelve city and town councils on 22 October 2005. In the capital city, however, elections for the Suva City Council were postponed till 12 November, owing to the death of two candidates; the death of a candidate in Lautoka also resulted in the postponement of the poll in one of the four wards.
Raman Pratap Singh is a Fijian lawyer and former politician of Indian descent.
Damodran Nair is a former Fijian politician of Indian descent, who held the Tavua Open Constituency in the House of Representatives for the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) in a by-election on 17 January 2004 following the death of the incumbent, Pravin Singh, in an automobile accident in late 2003. Nair was re-elected in the May 2006 parliamentary election. His parliamentary career was ended by the military coup of 5 December 2006.
Mohammed Tahir is a former Fijian politician of Indian descent. He represented the Labasa Rural Indian Communal Constituency, one of 19 reserved for Indo-Fijians, which he retained for the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) in a byelection held on 6 December 2003 to succeed the late Mohammed Latif Subedar.
Tavua Open is a former electoral division of Fiji, one of 25 open constituencies that were elected by universal suffrage. Established by the 1997 Constitution, it came into being in 1999 and was used for the parliamentary elections of 1999, 2001, and 2006. It formed part of Ba Province in the western part of the main island of Viti Levu.
Chandersen Chattur Singh was an Indo-Fijian politician. He caused a major sensation in the 1937 elections when he defeated A. D. Patel, a well known lawyer and political ally of Vishnu Deo.
The National Congress of Fiji was a Fijian political party that existed from 1965 to 1967. It was created to represent Indo-Fijians as a rival to the Citizens Federation. It soon merged, along with the General Electors Association, which mainly represented Fijians of European descent, to form the Alliance Party.
Rajesh Singh is a Fijian politician of Indian descent, who briefly held Cabinet office in mid-2006.
Sugar Cane Growers Council represents the sugar cane farmers with the sugar industry in Fiji. It is made up of 38 members elected by the farmers and eight members nominated by the government. The Sugar Cane Growers Council election is held every three years. The Council has a chief executive, the first one being Vijay R. Singh, and a chairman.
Attar Singh is a Fijian trade unionist of Indian descent. As of January 2007, he is the General Secretary of the Fiji Islands Council of Trade Unions (FICTU), one of two major umbrella bodies for trade unions in Fiji.
Agni Deo Singh is an Indo-Fijian teacher, who has risen through the ranks of the Fiji Teachers Union (FTU) to become its general secretary. He was also elected to the House of Representatives in 2006. Singh was born in rural Macuata in Vanua Levu, the second largest island in the Fiji Archipelago. After teacher training, he taught at Kadavu and Nausori. While teaching at Nausori he completed Diploma in Education, then did a Certificate in Non Formal Education as an external student of the University of the South Pacific. He completed his degree through summer schools.
Lisa Maria Singh is an Australian politician who was a Labor Party member of the Australian Senate for Tasmania from 2011 to 2019. She had previously been a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, representing the division of Denison from 2006 to 2010. The granddaughter of an Indo-Fijian member of the Parliament of Fiji, Singh was Australia's first federal parliamentarian of Indo-Fijian ancestry.
