27 Aug 2014

Fiji Labour Party lodges application over election candidate

3:10 pm on 27 August 2014

The Fiji Labour Party has lodged an application in the High Court for its candidate Steven Singh to be considered eligible as a candidate in next month's election.

Mr Singh was declared ineligible by the Supervisor of Elections, even though a conviction against him had been set aside.

The court on the weekend decided in favour of the Supervisor, Mohammed Saneem, after he was challenged by the Electoral Commission to allow Mr Singh to contest the election.

In a narrow interpretation of the Electoral Decree, the court ruled the directives from the Commission were out of time by a matter of hours.

A lawyer and member of the Labour Party, Anand Singh, says the party lodged the application yesterday and expects to hear today from the court, which it hopes will set a date to hear the application.

Anand Singh says Steven Singh's constitutional right has been denied, and the party will also argue a case based on international treaties.