8 Dec 2003

Labasa mayor says he won't appeal Fiji by-election outcome

5:01 pm on 8 December 2003

The National Federation Party candidate and Labasa mayor, Charan Jeath Singh, says he will not appeal the weekend by-election victory of the Fiji Labour Party.

The Labour candidate, Labasa lawyer Mohammed Rafiq, won an outright majority in the Labasa Rural Indian seat.

Mr Singh says it was a straight forward election, and he accepts the decision voters made.

"I'm a bit disappointed because people have betrayed me, they promised me and gave me all their assurances and been talking to me earlier that there was a lot of problems in the community which they realised that it wouldn't be solved through the confrontational attitude of Mr Chaudhry. But despite that, they decided to vote for a party that does not get any co-operation from government, so be it. I'll accept it."

But Mr Singh says he still intends following the high court writ against the Labour party, to prove the point that its election leaflet defamed him.