Prem Singh

Prem Singh is a Fijian politician and a member of the National Federation Party (NFP). An Indo-Fijian, he won the Nadi Open constituency in the election of 2001, becoming the only candidate of his party to win a parliamentary seat. He was subsequently appointed Leader of the Opposition, after the Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, declined the office, insisting that his party wanted Cabinet representation instead.

Singh's tenure as Leader of the Opposition was brief, as a court challenge by his defeated opponent, Krishna Prasad of the Fiji Labour Party, deprived him of his seat in Parliament when Judge Anthony Gates ruled on 8 February 2002 that more than a thousand votes, most of them for Prasad, that had been disqualified should not have been. Prem Singh appealed this decision to the Supreme Court which ruled that even though the ruling by Judge Anthony Gates was incorrect, the Constitution did not allow for the appeal of a Court of Disputed Returns ruling. [cite news|title = Fiji prime minister wants by-election after Prem Singh’s ousting |url=http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=1778]

On 7 December 2005, the NFP named Singh to a 3-member "Negotiating Committee," charged with negotiating electoral pacts with other political parties for the parliamentary election held in 2006.

Notes