Fiji Labour Party - Towards 2006

Towards 2006

At its conference on 28 July 2005, the Labour Party approved a platform for the election due in 2006. The platform calls for strategies to be enacted to ensure annual economic growth of 6%, price reductions for basic food items, and incentives for indigenous landowners to develop and profit from their land. The party also advocates electoral reform, calling for the abolition or at least the reduction of Communal constituencies, which are reserved for candidates and electors enrolled as members of specific ethnic groups. On 21 November, FLP Parliamentarian Perumal Mupnar said that an FLP government would remove Value Added Tax (VAT) from all food items.

The FLP has been exploring coalition possibilities with other parties ahead of the election. Fiji's instant run-off voting system, known locally as the alternative vote, allows votes for a low-polling candidate to be transferred to other candidates, following an order specified by the candidate, which may be customised by the individual voter. Most political parties are seeing coalition arrangements that will enable them to maximise their chances.

Deputy Leader Poseci Bune announced on 3 October that the FLP would attempt to broaden its appeal to indigenous Fijians by fielding more indigenous candidates than in previous elections. The final decision about what seats to contest would be made after the conclusion of negotiations with potential coalition partners, such as the NAPF and the UPP. On 10 October, Mahendra Chaudhry announced that 222 applications had been received for the 71 parliamentary constituencies, many of them indigenous. He was not surprised, he said, by the increasing interest shown by indigenous Fijians, whom he described as "frustrated" with the SDL government. He also welcomed what he said was a good number of prospective female candidates, saying that more women were needed in an area that was dominated by men.

FLP secretary and parliamentarian Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi announced on 9 January 2006 that the party would contest the forthcoming elections on a platform of completing the program it had begun in 1999-2000.