New Labour Unity Party

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Davidcannon (talk | contribs) at 03:15, 4 May 2005 (correction). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The New Labour Unity Party is a former Fijian political party, which broke away from the Fiji Labour Party in May 2001. It was founded by Tupeni Baba, a former Deputy Prime Minister and Labour Party stalwart, who had become dissatisfied with Mahendra Chaudhry's leadership and expressed fears that if Chaudhry, who had been deposed in the Fiji coup of 2000, returned as Prime Minister, there could be another coup. Other prominent Fijians associated with the party included Ratu Meli Vesikula.

In the parliamentary election of 2001, the New Labour Unity Party called for the strengthening of the independence of the judiciary, which had been undermined by government defiance. It also advocated a reduction in Value Added Tax, and for its complete removal on essential items. A NLUP government would work to build a non-racialist Fiji in the ethic of "love thy brother," and would ban all forms of unfair discrimination. It also called for a parliamentary code of conduct to end corruption. The party won two of the 45 seats it contested, but Baba himself was defeated. During the campaign, the party had been hurt by revelations that it had received F$200,000 from Peter Foster, a convicted Australian fraudster.

In the House of Representatives, the NLUP delegation split after the election. Kenneth Zinck joined the government benches and was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for Labour, Industrial Relations, and Productivity, while Ofa Swann decided to join the Opposition. The party organization decided sometime around 2003 to join with three other parties to form the new Fiji Democratic Party, under the leadership of Filipe Bole. This party dissolved itself in April 2005, in order to join the newly formed National Alliance Party of Fiji, led by Ratu Epeli Ganilau.