 the fiji labour party (flp) is a political party in fiji. most of its support at present comes from the indo-fijian community, although it is officially multiracial and its first leader was an indigenous fijian, dr. timoci bavadra. it is organised into 21 branches. the party's current president is jokapeci koroi. 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. == formation of the fiji labour party == by 1985, the people of fiji were yearning for a third force in fiji politics, as the opposition national federation party (nfp) was again falling apart and the right wing policies of the ruling alliance party had alienated it from the ordinary people. dissatisfaction with government policies had begun soon after the 1982 elections with a prolonged teachers' strike and a hunger strike by young graduates, who were longer guaranteed employment. in industrial disputes, the government sided with the employers. in november 1984, when the government announced a wage freeze, instead of calling a national strike, the largest trade union in fiji, the fiji public service association (fpsa), decided, in march 1985 by a margin of 2914 votes to 326 votes, to " associate itself with any organisation, in pursuance of workers' rights." the fiji labour party was launched on 6 july 1985 under the auspices of the fiji trades union congress, at the fiji teachers association hall in suva. == initial electoral success == flp faced its first electoral test in municipal elections held three months later, when it won control of the suva city council and its candidate, bob kumar was elected lord mayor. it also won seats on the labasa, nadi, and ba town councils, and subsequently secured a seat on the lautoka city council at a by-election. flp's main test as a national political force came during the by-election for the north central indian national seat in december 1985, following the resignation of vijay r. singh. flp decided to field mahendra chaudhry, who was also the general secretary of the national farmers union as its candidate. the nfp candidate was former alliance minister, james shankar singh and the alliance candidate was uday singh. whereas, both the alliance and nfp again used race as an issue, labour c
Political_parties_in_Fiji Socialist_International